


The Making of Meis and Gueira's Epically Decadent DalIami (Dallas-Miami) Themed Burnish Wedding Extravaganza

by audrenes



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alcohol, Bachelor Parties, Bet on It from HSM2 as a way to express your feelings, Friendship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Hospital Visit, Lio paces so much that he should invest in a fitbit, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nine Lokos as a plot device, One Minion cameo but not really, Self-Indulgent, Wedding Planning, choreographed dance sequence, double cartwheels as a metaphor for love, just a smidgen of hurt/comfort, like a little bit, like super self indulgent, mentions of relapsing after quitting smoking, not beta read we die like men, pop culture as a retro humor device, references to Cats the Musical, references to an incredibly spicy hot sauce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22538737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audrenes/pseuds/audrenes
Summary: Meis and Gueira ask Lio to officiate at their wedding. Lio accepts, but also takes it upon himself to plan the whole event. These are their stories.
Relationships: Burning Rescue Members & Mad Burnish Members (Promare), Gueira & Galo Thymos, Gueira/Meis (Promare), Lio Fotia & Gueira & Meis, Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos, Meis & Galo Thymos
Comments: 20
Kudos: 147





	The Making of Meis and Gueira's Epically Decadent DalIami (Dallas-Miami) Themed Burnish Wedding Extravaganza

**Author's Note:**

> me: haha imagine lio running around, planning meis and gueira's absolute RAGER of a wedding  
> me: hey wait a minute
> 
> When I say self indulgent, I mean SUPER self indulgent.
> 
> Y'all have been warned. 
> 
> Also, I have no clue how wedding planning works!!! Also!! Not beta read!!! But that's fine!!
> 
> Enjoy!!:^)

It all started with a text.

It was 1:32 am, and Lio had been neck deep in paperwork to be submitted to the council, refining his proposals for former-Burnish integration into Promepolis, and Lio was ready to knock out for the day. His head was well buried into the pillow, his body all wrapped in the thick comforter Galo got him when he moved in with him, and his eyes were closed, ready to drift into sleep.

Then his phone buzzed. Five times.

 **Meis:** Hey boss. I hope you’re not awake. You better not be. Anyway, Gueira and I want to ask you something.

 **Guiera:** ME N MEIS WANNA GET MARRIED 4 REALS (acc to this city lmao)

 **Gueira:** CAN U OFFICIATE?

 **Gueira:** PLS??? 🥺🥺🥺

 **Meis:** We know that you’re busy, so it doesn’t have to be anything big. We just want you to be the one to marry us.

Lio squinted at the boxes with Xs on the message, before he shot up in bed, now fully processing what the two just asked him, furiously typing.

 **Lio:** on GOD, i will give you two THE most decadent wedding ceremony

Lio squinted at the text, before he fell back onto his pillow, immediately knocking out.

Three hours later, he woke up, surprisingly earlier than Galo, pulled out an empty 3-inch binder from the hallway closet, and got to work.

  
“Galo.”

Galo’s mouth is open, ready to chomp on the spoonful of cereal when Lio calls his name. When he glances up from his phone, he sees Lio, furiously writing in his notebook across from him. He didn’t know it, but Lio had been like this for two hours.

“Yeah?” Galo asks, before he shoves his breakfast into his mouth.

“How much pyro can someone legally have in one place before it becomes a fire hazard?”

“Well, it depends on the venue and what type of pyro it is and--” Galo’s mouth is full of cereal, so it’s no surprise when he starts choking mid-sentence. Realizing what happened, Lio dropped his pen and notebook, rushing over to Galo, rubbing circles and patting his back as Galo swallowed his food.

“Are you okay?” Lio asks.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good--” Galo coughs. “I just-- can I ask why you’re asking?”

Lio lets out a sigh as he walks back to his seat. “It’s just something I’m planning for Meis and Gueira.”

Galo beams and is back to eating his cereal. “That’s dope! Do they like, share a birthday or something? 'Cause they never give me a straight answer when I ask.”

“No, it’s for their wedding--” Lio stops when he hears a noise coming from Galo. He pushes back his seat, but Galo holds up his hand.

“I’m good, I swallowed it this time. Hold on. Let me just--” Galo picks up his bowl of cereal and swallows it down.

 _“Galo,_ chew your food!”

“Ish all mush-- _oh fuck!”_ Galo speaks through the soggy cereal in his mouth before accidentally spilling some of the milk from his mouth and onto his shirt. He groans, chewing and swallowing as he goes into their bedroom to find a different shirt to wear. “I thought they were already married!”

“Technically they are!” Lio shouts back, but Galo’s already back in the room. “Oh, sorry. Technically they are, but technically they aren’t?”

Galo tilts his head in confusion, before he connects the dots. _“OH.”_

Lio nods. “And now that restoration is starting to slow down a bit, they wanted to renew their vows and have an actual wedding.”

Galo walks over to the thick binder next to Lio’s notebook. “Can I?

“Yeah, go ahead.”

As Galo flips through the pages, he lets out a whistle. “I guess they wanted to go big or go home, huh? Well, if there’s anything I learned about them from the past few years is that big fits them.”

“Actually, they wanted a small wedding.”

Galo shuts the binder close with a smile. “Nevermind, it’s been like, three years and I still know nothing about them.”

“No, you aren’t wrong,” Lio says as he types into the keyboard. Galo peers over and reads that it’s the same question Lio asked him earlier. “They didn’t want to give me more work on top of what I already have, so they said that they would be okay with me officiating and nothing else.”

“So what’s all of this?” Galo asks, gesturing to the binder, which he assumed was going to be the first of many.

“Galo,” Lio puts his pen down and looks up at his boyfriend. “Meis and Gueira aren’t just my former generals, they’re my best friends. I wasn’t there when they first got married, but from what they told me, it was while they were on the run from Freeze Force, after setting something on fire, in the desert, and it wasn’t until weeks later that they were able to get their matching tattoos-- of which they chose to get instead of rings because they knew they could never lose it and that if they turned to ash, it would go with them.”

Lio takes Galo’s hand. “They have gone through so much, so they deserve a wedding that is fitting to them. They asked me to be a part of their wedding. It would be an insult to not only them, but me, if I allow myself to give them anything less than what they deserve. And what they deserve is the most amount of pyrotechnics legally allowed in the park from sunset to midnight.”

Galo smiles as he shifts his hand, interlocking it with Lio’s, bringing it up to give it a kiss. “That’s really sweet, firebug. I’ll ask when I clock in.”

Lio smiles back, squeezing Galo’s hand back. “Thank you.”

Galo leans down and kisses Lio on the forehead. “Okay, now I gotta go to work! I’ll see ya later, Lio!!”

The door swings open and close in a flash.

Thirty minutes later, Lio’s phone buzzes. He picks it up.

**Galo:** _so ignis said pyro in the park is a no go unless it’s a grill_

Lio frowns, letting his phone clatter to the table as he rests his head on the table and lets out a loud groan. He sighs, ready to type in another search before his phone buzzes again.

 **Galo:** _BUUUUUUUUUUUT he said that it’s all good so long as at least five firefighters are at the venue and since there’s six of us, (not including vinny) well :)_

A smile creeps on Lio’s face as he types a response.

 **Lio:** _Just 5 will do. I do need a plus one, after all._

 **Galo:** _?_

 **Galo:** _OH. oh yeah!! Hell yeah!!!!_

 **Lio:** _Ok. I’ll see you when you get home._

It’s a little bit before Galo replies back.

 **Galo:** _Yeah! Let’s get these two married!!!!!!!!!!!!_

Lio clicks his phone close, returning to his paperwork, unaware of the five minute silent panic Galo went through when he accidentally forgot to include three words in the middle of his reply and almost hit send before fixing it.

It’s been a few weeks since Meis and Gueira’s wedding was brought up and of course, once the news spread to Burning Rescue, they threw the couple a surprise engagement party at the pizzeria.

The surprise part applied to Lio as well, apparently.

As Meis and Gueira talked to the group, Lio leaned on the bar, waiting for his drink to be completed before he joined them. He watched over them fondly before he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey.”

“Oh, hey,” Lio says, turning to Galo, who was wiping off the excess moisture on his pants. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yeah?”

“How come you didn’t tell me about the surprise engagement party?”

“I’m gonna be real with you firebug, I wanted to give you a little break-- now don’t give me that look!” Galo holds his hands up defensively, seeing Lio give him the look of neutral disappointment. “I know planning this means a lot to you because it’s for them, but you’ve been kinda going really hard at it and I wanted to take some of it off of your shoulders. The squad, too!”

Lio’s shoulders drop. “I guess I can’t be too mad.”

After all, everyone at Burning Rescue considered Meis and Gueira a friend as much as Lio did. Okay, maybe not _as_ much, but still. Lio understood that they wanted to show the pair that they were happy for them.

“To be honest, I’m kind of glad you did it,” Lio sighs. “I’ve hit a bit of a wall.”

“Oh?”

The bartender hands Lio his drink and is about to walk away to take care of another order, but Galo calls him back.

“Hey, can I get a virgin Piña Colada? Thank you!”

Lio raises a brow at him. Galo shrugs. “DD tonight! Also now you have time to explain before we head back.”

 _“You,”_ Lio says endearingly as he nudges his boyfriend.

“So what’s this wall that I have to beat up for you?” Galo squares up his shoulders, earning a chuckle from Lio.

“It’s just. You know how I told you that Meis and Gueira said I didn’t have to do much for them, but that I want to anyway?”

“Yeah.”

“Well they’ve been giving me lukewarm answers to _every_ question I ask them,” Lio takes a sip of his Bloody Mary. 

Galo pretends to not be affected when he picks up the familiar scent of Lio’s hot sauce from the drink. He wasn’t sure how it was approved to be allowed to be used in any restaurant given The Hot Wings Incident from six months ago, but that was a discussion for another time. 

“I ask them what their theme should be, they tell me fire-- easy enough. Then I ask them if they want stage pyro or fireworks to be set off once they’re officially married, they say whatever works. Same goes for the food, the place settings, the decor-- everything! Well,” Lio pauses to drink again, allowing Galo to cough as inconspicuously as he can and wipes the tears caused by the hot sauce in his boyfriend’s drink away from his eyes. “They do have one other thing they were sure about.”

“Well, that’s good! It’s something!”

"I guess," Lio sighs. "I just wish that they were more invested in their own wedding."

"Maybe they really _do_ just want a small ceremony?"

"You see, I would believe that if they didn't throw a rager for Reese when he turned five. We gathered up our rations, did the math for what was reasonable for us to use to yield a feast, and drank Nine Lokos until morning."

 _"Damn._ What a wild ass party for a toddler."

"Reese is a dog."

_"Holy shit."_

"So you see it now?" Lio glances over at Meis and Guiera and stared them down. "Those two fools wouldn't want a slumber party for their wedding."

"Slumber parties can be dope, though," Galo offers.

"Oh, I know. But I'm talking about the lame ones. The ones where you actually go to sleep."

"Oh," Galo scrunches his face and blows a raspberry.

"Exactly."

"Here you are, sir," the bartender says as they slide Galo his drink.

"Thanks again!" Galo fishes in his pockets for a moment before dropping a few singles into the tip jar.

"We should go back before they think we're up to something."

"Yeah, that can wait."

"Yeah?"

"Hell yeah, firebug. Balls to the walls are the words I live by, remember? This counts!"

"Thank you, Galo."

Once they reached their table, they were greeted with a loud cheer.

"Holy shit, Galo, you would not believe the story the happy couple just told us--" Lucia cackles between laughs. "So get this, imagine throwing a big ass party for a _five-year-old_ , but wait-- haha, Meis, you tell it!"

"It’s about Reese, right? Lio _just_ told me that story."

"Oh, worm? _Boss!_ How could you? We love telling that story," Guiera whines, leaning further into Meis, even though he already had an arm draped over his shoulders.

"Well, I believe that if getting spoiled by a story ruins the experience, it was never good at all," Lio shrugs. "You guys tell it your own way to Galo."

Guiera swings his head to face Meis, for his thoughts. He nods, leaning over the table. "So get this: there's a unicycle in the middle of the desert."

The night continues well after Meis and Gueira finish telling their story about Reese the dog. They dive into multiple stories about that tenacious Chihuahua, reminiscing how he was so unaware of what was going on, that he was the cause of _many_ entertaining events while on the run.

"Ohhh my God, I loved that fuckin' dog!" Gueira wheezes as Lio finished telling the story about how Reese distracted Freeze Force because Vulcan accidentally stepped in a pile of his shit when they tried to be stealthy on a raid.

"Oh shit, did he die?" Aina gasps.

"Nah, worse: we had to give him up," Meis shakes his head. "We almost lost him during a run-in with Freeze Force and we all agreed that it was getting too dangerous to keep him, so we had to let him go."

"Do you know where he is now?" Varys asks as he drinks his water.

"Well, we knew a guy in town that was a Burnish sympathizer and we trusted him enough to follow through with it. He said he knew a guy at the edge of the city, and we tried looking for ‘em, but no dice," Gueira cuddles into the crook of Meis’ neck. 

“Runnin’ around, it was hard to keep goin’ sometimes, but that little chihuahua kept us goin’,” Meis slurred, his accent thickening.

Lio nodded, picking a stray piece of mozzarella off of the pan before popping it into his mouth. “Our little Reese’s Pieces...”

“You named him after the candy?” Remi asks, almost surprised.

“The kids who found him did,” Lio nods.

“To Reese,” Ignis says, holding up his glass. “Wherever he may be.”

“To Reese!” The group agrees, mimicking him.

“Oh good _God,”_ Lio groans as he rises from the bed.

While Lio had an insane amount of alcohol tolerance, the same could not be said about his relationship to hangovers the next morning. It didn’t matter if he had one glass of wine or several cocktails, he always had a wickedly bad headache.

Lucky for him, he always woke up with a glass of water that had a napkin covering the top and two capsules of painkillers with the smell of fried egg wafting through the air.

This morning was no different.

After taking the two pills dry and gulping down the glass of water set out for him, Lio shuffled over to the living room, where Galo was finishing up breakfast.

“Mornin’ sunshine!”

Lio groaned as he sat in front of all of his paperwork: for reconstruction _and_ Meis and Gueira’s wedding.

Like clockwork, Galo walked over with Lio’s standard hangover food: egg in the hole with a generous amount of guacamole and his special hot sauce with some store-bought hashbrown patties on the side with water served in a large, handmade, ceramic mug of a pufferfish they had found while thrift shopping.

Once Galo sat down with his own serving and a glass of orange juice, he looked across the table at Lio.

“How are ya feeling?”

Lio breathes out a heavy sigh through his nose as he drowsily chewed his breakfast. Lio never believed Galo when he said it, but it didn’t change his mind on how endearing he found it when Lio had food all over his face while he was deep in thought. Galo loved it because it was moments like these that he thought were just his and Lio’s.

“Mmm. Bad. Food’s good, though,” Lio finally says before he puts a piece of the hashbrown in his mouth.

“Good!”

After eating, Lio insisted on washing the dishes, saying that he wanted to just shut his mind off while still doing something. Galo reluctantly obliged, opting to tidy up the living room. As he did, the open page of one of the wedding planning binders caught his eye.

“Hey Lio?” Galo asks, careful with the volume of his voice.

“Yes?”

Galo leans against the counter, next to Lio. “What’s a Nine Loko?” 

“It’s a Five Hour energy drink mixed with a Four Loko,” Lio answers, his tone too casual for Galo’s liking.

Galo, through a strained smile, says, “Oh, haha… _nnoooooo_ …………… _why?_ ”

“When we had the Promare, it was insanely difficult for the alcohol to hit, but the Nine Lokos did it in. And actually tasted like something,” Lio shakes the excess water out of a plate before placing it on the dish rack. “We tried making moonshine once out of curiosity. It _did not_ work out well.”

“Lio,” Galo says firmly. “As someone who has gone through EMT training, I cannot, with a good conscience, walk away from this conversation without telling you how much of a bad idea serving Nine Lokos is.”

Honestly, the whole drink menu was concerning. Well, just the Nine Loko and Lio’s Bloody Mary. The berry drink with the ice cream on top sounded pretty nice. But that was beside the point.

“Well...” Lio sighs. “It does hold some fond memories, bonding with them and the others, but with how nonchalantly they’ve been treating everything, hm-- But this _was_ the one thing they specifically requested.”

 _“Really,_ ” Galo asks in disbelief.

“I’ll think about it and run it by them,” Lio says.

“That’s all I ask,” Galo puts his hands up in the air before he goes back to tidying their apartment.

Almost a week later, Galo is sitting on the counter of their apartment, watching Lio zip around the apartment, his paperwork now taking over a corner of the wall next to the couch.

“Yes-- I’ll hold,” Lio says begrudgingly into his bluetooth headset as he flips to another page in his third binder.

Galo takes a bite of his bagel.

Their living room has now become Lio’s office away from his office, filled to the brim with dense legalise along with moodboards for Meis and Gueira’s wedding. Galo glances over at Lio’s mug, which was almost empty. He hopped off the counter, bagel still in his mouth, picking Lio’s mug up before heading back into the kitchen to prepare another serving for him. Just as Galo placed the mug where it was before, Lio picked it back up to take a sip.

Galo was pretty sure that Lio didn’t notice it was his third mug of coffee.

Before he could go back to perch himself on the counter, there was a knock on the door. When Lio glanced over at Galo, the latter was already on his way to answer it.

“You summoned us?” Gueira asked once the door swung open.

“Yeah, can you guys help with, uh,” Galo looks back at Lio, aggressively pacing in the living room. “Y’know.”

Meis and Gueira peek over Galo’s shoulders. “Oh.”

They both pat Galo’s sides. “Don’t worry, we got this.”

When Lio sees his former generals, his face lights up for a few seconds before it’s dimmed by the person on the other end of the phone.

 _“Yes, I’ll hold,”_ he says again, trying to stay polite, but his tiredness starting to show. Galo wishes he kept count how many times Lio said that today. “Well it’s a surprise seeing you two.”

“Boss,” Gueira says as Meis guides Lio to sit on the couch. “You got a moment?”

Lio listens to the hold music playing in his right ear. “Well I do now.”

Gueira takes a seat on their coffee table as Meis starts to speak. “Listen, you don’t have to stress yourself out on this.”

“Yeah,” Gueira nods. “We’d be chill with whatever you manage to cobble together!”

“But--” Lio starts to protest, until the hold music stops. He gestures to the two that he had to take the call, they shrug and Lio mouths “I’m sorry” as he answers the call. Meis and Gueira faintly hear the person on the other line speak. “Yes, the venue will have pyro, I have the forms available for it on hand with the volunteers for that shift. Okay. Yes, okay. Thank you. I’ll look into it. Have a nice day!”

Lio groans as he scribbles something in his notebook.

 _“Boss_ ,” Meis says firmly. “Listen. All we care about is if you’re there to officiate for us.”

“All this fancy stuff is just for the others, we’d be cool if--” Gueira stops in his tracks when his eyes glance down at the drink menu. “Why is the Nine Loko crossed out.”

It’s not even a question. _It’s a demand for an answer._

“Well... Galo said that he couldn’t, in good conscience, let me put that on the menu,” Lio says, confused at the sudden straightforwardness.

_“WELL IT ISN’T GALO’S WEDDING, IS IT.”_

Lio blinks as he watches the two suddenly looking at the binders with critical eyes. He glances over at Galo, who’s perched back up on the counter and offers him an equally confused shrug.

Meis is done flipping through the binder and leans back into the couch with a relieved sigh. “I was only able to skim it, but it seems to be all good.”

Gueira couldn’t say the same.

“WHY CAN’T WE HAVE YOUR HOT SAUCE SERVED AT THE RECEPTION???”

“Because the venue said we legally can’t serve it without a doctor or someone who’s EMT certified and on shift present?” Lio answers, still confused.

Gueira shoves a finger at Galo’s direction. _“HE’S_ EMT CERTIFIED.”

“I... ” Lio squints his eyes. “...Do you... want to go to lunch so we can discuss this more thoroughly?”

“How about we order in, since all of your things are here, and Galo,” Meis glances towards his direction. “Could you give us some space?”

“...Sure?” Honestly, he isn’t against it. He’s pretty sure Gueira was ready to choke him for daring to take the Nine Loko off the menu. He’s even more sure that Meis wanted to as well, but was doing a better job at concealing his rage toward him.

Galo unplugged his phone from its charger and grabbed his keys. “I’m gonna be at the station! I’ll be back by dinner!”

And then he was out the door.

Gueira continues to go through the binders as Lio orders in their food. This was a garbage plate kind of conversation. Once Lio was off the phone, he sits on the couch and cracks open his binder.

“Okay, so I want your thoughts on the music: band or a DJ? Because if we get a band, we can call Foni to see if he’s available, but if it’s a DJ, Spitha has been wanting a gig lately.”

“We can’t do both?” Gueira asks.

“Do you two want both? We can arrange for Foni to be there for half the night and Spitha to take over the other.”

“Let’s do both.”

“Okay,” Lio writes a reminder to call the two later in his notebook. “Great. So when I asked you about your theme about fire, is there anything else you want in?”

“Uhh...” Gueira looks up at the ceiling to think. “Well it’d be cool if we could make it like a really bad mish-mash party of our hometowns, but that’s not a wedding party...”

“Why wouldn’t it be? It’s _your_ wedding party,” Lio says.

“But boss, you said that it’d be decadent! Getting a huge-ass kiddie pool filled with hay and a single needle isn’t very decadent-- _don’t write that down!_ ” Meis argues, but Lio is adding it in his notebook.

“Okay, it isn’t “traditionally” decadent, but it’s _you_ ,” Lio sighs as he closes his notebook. “When I said that I’d make your wedding decadent, I meant that it’d be decadent for _you._ _Both_ of you. This is _your_ wedding. If you want a slip n’ slide for the aisle instead of a carpet, I’ll get it. If you want to have the catering be grill side, I’ll work on it. If you two want to go out to the desert and throw some molotov cocktails at some rubble, we can do that. But I’ll be _damned_ if I’m supposed to believe that you two wouldn’t want anything less than… than...”

Lio searches for his words, before his eyes settle on a picture of Galo. “Balls to the walls.”

“Boss… you really mean that?” Gueira asks.

Lio settles into the couch. “Of course I do. This is a Burnish wedding, Promare or not. We _will_ set something on fire, drink _at least_ one round of Nine Lokos, and party like we’re still on the run-- except we’re not and we have to clean up, but that’ll be my problem, not yours.”

“Okay,” Meis says. “In that case, we got a couple of ideas. At least I do. What about you, Gueira?”

“Oh no, I got a few dozen.”

Lio opens his notebook. “List away and we can figure it out after.”

“Okay, so, picture this,” Gueira holds his hands up and gestures a frame for his scenario. “DalIami: On Fire. A mechanical bull, but instead of a bull, it’s a giant orange.”

Lio nods, with a wide smile. “There we go. _There we go.”_

  
  


An hour later, as Lio was comparing stage versus sky pyrotechnics to the couple, he took his last sip of coffee.

“Okay, so if we do sky pyro, we’d--” Lio paused, squinting at his coffee mug. _How the_ fuck _did it stay warm and how did he_ just _finish it?_

“Something wrong, boss?” Gueira asks as he pushes around the last bites of his garbage plate. 

“I--” Lio’s mouth forms a hard line, but he shakes his head. He’ll just think about it later. “It’s fine. So sky pyro: we’d have to wait until sunset for the ceremony, so all of the photographs would be taken before hand. Are you two okay with seeing each other before the ceremony?”

The two looked at each other, and looked, and looked and looked, before images of the ceremony started to fill their head.

“Let’s go for it,” Gueira nods. “We can get our bearings before we’d do it. I ain’t sharing my first wedding tears in front of anyone else but Meis.”

Meis nods. “And sky pyro would feel more… us.”

Gueira smiles as he squeezes his husband’s hand. 

“Fuck yeah, it will.”

When Galo returned that evening, Meis and Gueira had gotten over his alleged betrayal in attempting to remove the Nine Loko from the drink menu.

“You sure we can’t like, just make a mix that’s similar tasting, but y’know, not _that_?” Galo asks in a whisper as he chops the sweet onions for the curry.

Lio glances over at Meis and Gueira, who are now comparing table setting arrangements. “Yes, they’ll be able to tell the difference.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we’ve got the squad on board for this, huh?” Once he was done, Galo flipped the knife, scraping the diced onions into the sizzling pan.

“Why are suit fittings _so early_ onto this process?” Gueira groans.

“Tailoring takes time, dude!” Galo says as he wrangles Gueira into a one arm hug so that he could ruffle his hair with the other. 

After the Nine Loko Betrayal Incident, Lio made it abundantly clear that he was planning their wedding specifically tailored to them and their interests, Meis and Gueira started to become more interested in the planning. They were able to solve half of Lio’s problems from the one session over the garbage plate they ordered in. They were mostly little decisions, or decisions neither of them really cared about.

But now came what was arguably one of the most important things: the attire.

While the two opted in to see each other before the ceremony, they wanted to keep the surprise until then, so Lio had to have separate conversations with them regarding their wedding wear. Overhearing their conversation about the outfits, Burning Rescue decided that they wanted to tag along for the ride.

“It’s like we’re your entourage!” Varys stated. Varys wasn’t shy to admitting to the fact that he watch plenty of _Say Yes to the Dress_ reruns. It was fairly light hearted compared to other reality TV shows, with the occasional tension over the enterouge’s opinions overshadowing the bride’s wants being the height of the drama being quickly resolved, and never spinning out of control. What could he say? He liked the tameness of it.

“I heard some… interesting decisions about the attire and I would like to see it,” Remi added in. Remi wasn’t shy _per se_ about how interested he was in pre-Blaze fashion, he just didn’t talk about it unprompted, unlike Galo and the Matoi. But when he _was_ prompted, he could go on about fashion history _for hours_.

Aina nodded. “I heard fringe and I’m… curious.”

“The _fringe?_ I wanna know what Gueira’s got up his sleeve,” Lucia yelled from the other room.

Ignis ended up being dragged with Gueira’s group, consisted of Galo, Lucia, and Vinny, while Lio, Aina, Varys, and Remi were with Meis at the other side of Promepolis.

It was abundantly clear that Ignis was in charge of wrangling his group in case they got too unhinged.

“Why are we at this place again?” Gueria asks as he stares down the exceedingly flashy sign. 

_“Because_ it’s the only place in town that’ll be able to do what you’re asking them to do,” Galo reminds him.

“It’s a strip club.”

Lucia folds her arms behind her head, where Vinny is perched at the top of it. “You’re the one who asked for tearaway sleeves, man!”

_“I didn’t know that they did tailoring.”_

“Well, they don’t. But! Lio got in touch with an old buddy of yours and she was more than happy to help,” Galo says as he opens the door for them. “She even told us to come in before opening so we could use the stage to really see your ‘fits.”

“It’s just the one outfit.”

 _“But still,”_ Galo insisted, but Gueira still didn’t look convinced. “We have your road trip playlist.”

Gueira’s eyes start to sparkle. “You have my _Shitty Middle School Humor Songs for the Road_ playlist? ”

Lucia fished out a USB in the shape of a weird-pill shaped character with a single eyeball wearing overalls and glasses. “Hell _yeah_ we do.”

“We wanted to save it for your bachelor party, but hey, if it gets your fire going, fuck it. Shitty Middle School Humor Songs for the Road, Time.”

“HELL YEAH. _HELL YEAH!!!_ ”

The three chanted that as Ignis quietly followed them into the club.

  
  
  


Getting an empty club for a tailoring job was an experience like no other.

To make sure Gueira kept still, they played some of the more tame songs while Eidi, the assistant manager of the establishment, picked out an outfit similar to what Gueira requested for. It was flashy, to keep in line with the club’s aesthetics, but she stated that she’d reverse engineer the pattern to whatever fabric Gueira chose.

Once she was done with the adjustments, she waved a hand from backstage, giving Galo the cue to introduce Gueira as a song started to play in the background.

“Introducing one of our grooms, _Gueiraaaaaaaaaaaa!!!_ ” Galo spoke into the mic, reading the cue cards like an announcer.

When the first words of the song hit the speakers, Gueira parted the curtains with flair, the ends of it fluttering as he strutted a few steps, giving him the push he needed to roll the rest of the way down the stage using the wheels on the heels of his shoes.

Lucia and Galo whooped and cheered, hyping Gueira up as Ignis took a sip of his iced tea.

When Gueira reached the end of the stage, the first verse of the song played as he spun around, taking the blazer off, revealing a teal jersey of the Miami heat, and a printed button up with floral pattern underneath.

All the while, Galo was reading off the cue card, listing the details as Gueira posed for each of them. Once the verse was about to reach its end, Gueira pulled the jacket back on, ready for the “chorus”.

“ _FUCK. MY. DICK. IMMA CHOP IT OFF--_ HAHA HOLY **_SHIIIIIIT_** _!!_ ” Lucia shouts the lyrics, but stops when Gueira rips off both the sleeves of his blazer and the shirt underneath, on both sides, all at the same time.

“ _I AIN’T CUMMIN’ NO POOTS,_ **_FUCK THE COPS_ ** _,_ ” Gueira continued.

The lights went wild as Gueira, Galo, and Lucia continued to sing along to the song. All the while, Ignis scrolled through his phone, to give an update to Lio. He turned around, facing away from the trio behind him, stretched his arm out, took a picture, and reviewed its quality before sending it.

  
  
  


**Ignis:** _fitting is going well._

  
  
  


_“Holy shit,_ ” Lio says under his breath at the sight of the picture.

“Something wrong with the Kindergarten Crew?” Remi asks through his peach wine.

Lio holds up the phone to show Aina, Remi, and Varys the picture Ignis just sent him, and they all lean over to look.

“Yeah… that checks out,” Aina nods, resting back on the couch.

“Are they… at a strip club…?” Varys asks, squinting his eyes at the picture.

“We know the assistant manager and when I asked her about it, she was more than willing to work with them,” Lio explains, in a hushed tone, careful that Meis wouldn’t overhear and get hints at what Gueira’s wedding wear would be like.

“What’s this about a strip club?” Meis asks from the dressing room.

“Kindergarten Crew went to one for Gueira’s fitting,” Remi answers.

“Oh, is it where Eidi works at? How is she?” As if on cue, Lio’s phone buzzed open, revealing another picture of the group, this time with Eidi in the background with an inflatable flamingo pool ring over her head as Gueira, Galo, Lucia, and Vinny are all pretending to swim on the stage with various pool-side props.

“Judging from... the photo Ignis _just_ sent, she looks pretty good,” Lio says, before closing his phone again.

“Good,” Meis replies, brief and to the point as he’s focused on dressing himself in the third outfit of the day. Lio leans back into the couch and closes his eyes, focusing on the country music playing in the small boutique.

Aina lets out a sympathetic smile, but doesn’t say anything until Lio opens his eyes.

“You good there, Lio?”

Lio’s eyes flick toward the changing room before he wills himself up. “Don’t tell Meis or Gueira this but… I’m just... tired. So tired that I-- Nevermind.”

Varys and Remi lean toward him.

“What’s got you down?” Varys whispers back.

“My proposals to the city council keep getting pushed back,” Lio sighs. “I didn’t want to scale back on the requests, since they were already so bare minimum, but I relented and even then, they won’t give us what we need. And if they do, it’s subpar at best.”

“Hm,” Remi hums, twirling the liquid in his glass. “Administrative bureaucracy, reliably unreliable.”

“I know. I give them evidence to back up the request for laws and supplies, they either respond slowly or give me a non-answer. It’s ridiculous.”

Remi takes a drink. “You’ve been handling yourself pretty well for someone who’s never gotten into law, though.”

Lio shrugs. “I like reading dense leagalise.”

“Nerd,” Remi snorts. “But seriously. I went to law school before going into Mad Burnish. It isn’t much, but I can give you a few pointers so that you can really give them no excuses to push your proposals back without having to make too many compromises in their favor.”

“You went into law?” Aina asks. She isn’t surprised, but it still gives her a bit of a whiplash.

“You’re good, Fotia. You have a natural presence and talent for this, you just need a bit of a push.”

“Huh,” Lio says, stunned.

“Why didn’t you offer to help before, man?” Varys asks.

“Listen, I know the government is _bad_ , but I thought that after Parnassus, they would’ve learned their lesson? Maybe a little bit? Forgive me for being a bit optimistic!” Remi downs his glass.

“Better late than never, I guess,” Aina shrugs.

“I’ll… consider it. Thank you, Remi.”

Now, Lio felt a twinge of guilt about the bulk pack of worm on a string he used to fill Remi’s locker with two days ago. But it was fine because Remi had stuffed _Lio_ ’s locker with tiny plastic babies, the night before.

Neither of them knew it at the moment, but they were pretty much even.

The conversation halts when they hear the clink of spurs approaching them, and it’s silent until they see Meis walk in the middle of the space. They all gasp, taking the sight in.

Meis wore a dark, fringed, velvet jacket over his white button up, which had scalloped embroidery near the edge of the collar, a bolo tie tying it together. His matching leather pants were flared at the bottom, with a slit cut out, the lace insert revealing pointed, spurred boots.It was hard to see in the current lighting, but the subtle purple hue of the velvet complimented his hair and complexion, as well as the reds in the boots and bolo tie.

“Meis...” Lio has his hands over his mouth. He’s trying not to cry. And not just because he’s stressed out of his mind. Actually, it’s _because_ he’s stressed out of his mind and the fact that he’s looking at one of his best friends in an outfit that’s so _fitting_ for his wedding, that he feels so overwhelmed with emotion.

“This is so _you_ _!”_ Aina gushes.

Varys nods in agreement. “Very classy, but unapologetically Dallas.”

Meis smiles, looks at himself in the mirror, but frowns.

Aina’s the first to catch on. “Oh no, what’s with that frown?”

“I _really_ like it, but it’s… _missing_ something...” Meis sighs.

“Wait, I think I have an idea,” Remi pulls out his phone, typing away into the search engine. He opens a new tab, with a separate search and once the page loads up, he hits the images tab, and strides over to Meis. “What if we get you a hat like that and… for your jacket, we can do something like _this_.”

“That’s...” Meis pauses. “That’s exactly what I want? Remi, what the hell? Lio--”

Before Meis can finish, Lio’s already next to them, and he looks at Remi’s phone. Varys and Aina join them as Lio processes his thoughts.

“It’s doable,” Lio says. “Let’s see if Eidi doesn’t mind taking on another job for us.”

“If she isn’t, I could work on Meis’ outfit,” Remi offers.

“Did you also study fashion?” Aina asks him.

“No,” Remi answers. “But my mother _did_ run a bridal store and my father did the tailoring, so I know a thing or two.”

Aina just stares at him, wanting to know what other things Remi has stored in his Mary Poppins bag of a backstory, but at the same time, wanting to reserve her curiosity for later.

They walked out of the store with the velvet ensemble, satisfied with what was to come.

“You two want to _what,_ now?”

Lio had just finished up a meeting with the council on his new set of Burnish Integration Proposals and was making his way to his office to drop off a few things before heading out for lunch. Now, he was standing on the steps outside of city hall, making sure he heard his friends correctly.

 _“We want to--”_ Unfortunately for all of them, city hall was still under construction, so the loud noise of the jackhammer interrupted Gueira’s sentence.

“Hold on, let me call you back when-- actually, you two have a day off today, right? Why don’t we meet up for lunch?”

_“Hells yeah! What about that cafe on the corner of Main and Brick? Varys says that their pastries are the shit!”_

Lio looks up at the sky, rummaging through his memory, because he has definitely seen the place while on his way to work before. “The Lemonade Stand?”

_“YEAH! That’s the one!”_

“Alright. See you guys in 10?”

 _“Make it 5, we were already out,”_ Meis interjects. _“See you there, boss.”_

_“See ya!”_

So now, Lio was in line with Meis and Gueira as Gueira hunched over the glass fridge that contained all of the pastries out for display, heavily deliberating on what to get.

“Decided yet?” Lio asks. They’re seven away from the front, and there was a small family ahead of them, so it was fine if Gueira wasn’t sure yet.

“I’m between… the tiramisu and the tart with the strawberries.”

“The tart with the strawberries looks promising, plus, you never like tiramisu whenever you order it,” Meis offers.

“Yeah, but I’m still looking for something similar to this one cake I really liked from a buffet restaurant back home,” Gueira sighs. “It was chocolate, but _I swear_ I could taste some coffee in it.”

“It doesn’t mean that it was a _tiramisu._ Tiramisu usually has the cake or ladyfingers dipped in coffee, and you said that the cake wasn’t as liquid-y as the tiramisus have been.”

“I am curious as to why you picked the tart, though,” Lio says, now looking at it. “I thought you weren’t a fan of custard or fruit in your desert?"

“I’m not, _but it looks so good,_ ” Gueira sighs.

“What about this: we get one desert, and we split the tiramisu?”

Gueira looks at Meis, with glassy eyes. “Babe...”

“Remember that when we meet with Glykos about your cake on Saturday,” Lio says.

“Oh, I have been waiting for the cake meeting ever since we had the garbage plate together,” Gueira says, his voice full of determination. “I can’t **wait** to eat it.”

“Please don’t leave me for Glykos,” Meis sighs, with a smile on his face.

“Glykos is cool and all, but I dunno, Meisie, the cake is kind of looking pretty good.”

Meis only snorts, nudging his husband forward when the line shifts. Lio rolls his eyes endearingly at his two best friends as he continues to stare down the menu.

Eventually, they’re seated down in the middle of the busy cafe, the sunlight only being _a little_ annoying as it reflects off of the glossy tiled surface and into their eyes. Luckily for them, someone takes a table by the window and their shadow gets rid of most of the glare on the tiles. Their pastries sat in front of them, but they decided to hold off on it until after they finished their actual meal.

“Okay, so what was it that you guys wanted to say?”

“Well, me and Meis just came back from watching _Cats_ and--”

Lio winces. “Oh no...”

Just last week, Galo had convinced Lio to watch an iteration of the musical with him. It was… _interesting_ to say the least. And while he didn’t want to discourage his friends from getting the wedding they want, he had some reservations about this. Lio wondered if this was what the Nine Loko was to Galo. He felt like he owed him an apology now.

“Okay, now wait--” Gueira holds his hands up. “We watched the production they put out last week, then we watched the one that was made _before_ the CGI one and boss-- don’t look at us like that-- _it slaps._ ”

Lio remained skeptical, his expression unchanging as he stared his two former generals down while their drinks were being served.

“Forgive me for being skeptical, but I don’t recall any songs that would be fitting to your-- thank you,” Lio paused as he gave the waitress a smile, which she politely returned as she made her way back to the kitchen. “Wedding. _Or_ you two, specifically.”

 _“Because you haven’t watched the filmed stage adaption._ It was _so nice_ , like-- hold on,” Gueira shakes his hands before he picks up his phone, scrambling to find the perfect video to make their case. “This is the one we wanna do. It’s in two parts, though.”

As Gueira worked to find the video, Meis was untangling his pair of earphones. Once the video was pulled up, Gueira propped his phone up against the napkin dispenser as Meis handed Lio his earphones.

Gueira watched as Lio’s face scrunched up at the sight of the two actors crawling on stage, gently nuzzling at each other and felt like he had to speak up. “Just keep watching.”

Lio was able to nod, and blinked his head back in shock once Rum Tum Tugger appeared on the screen. He looked at Meis and Gueira.

“I know, right?” Was all that Meis wanted to say.

Lio was in the middle of swapping over to the second part of the song when Meis and Gueira were rearranging their pastries and drinks to make way for their food. Luckily, there wasn’t much going on as Mr. Mistoffelees waved the red tarp around, but Lio was able to put his attention back on it when Rum Tum Tugger continued to sing.

His eyes peers up at his two friends again.

 _“I know, right??_ ” Gueira says over his croque madame.

“Okay, well, I can see it now,” Lio says as he hands the phone and earphones to Gueira and Meis respectively. He also made a mental note to go rent the movie to watch with Galo when they came home later that day. 

“Obviously, we wanna make some changes, but this is more or less what we want to do,” Meis says as he places his earphones back in his pocket.

“Which is me singing about how great Meis is as he performs a bunch of magic tricks,” Gueira smiles as he squishes his sandwich down. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize that the egg was still runny, frowning as he started to lower the sandwich back on the plate, but shook his head, taking a bite out of it anyway as the yolk started to run down on his hand. Like there was any way in hell he’d eat a sandwich with a fork and a knife.

“You know how to do magic?” Lio asks Meis in amusement.

“I’ve been practicing,” Meis nods with a prideful smile. “Check this out.”

Meis opens his palm towards Lio, indicating that they’re empty, before he closes them, only to open his right hand up, revealing a coin in his hand.

“Okay, well that’s impressive, but--” Before Lio can continue, Meis holds a finger up, indicating that there’s more to his bit. He takes the coin, spins it around before flipping it up in the air, catching it with his other hand. But this time, when Meis opens his hand, Lio’s apartment keys are in his hand.

“What the _fuck_ \--” Lio scrambles to look at his set of keys and sure enough, his apartment key is missing. Meis returns it to him without a beat.

“And that’s only the close ranged stuff.”

“Is that--” Lio pauses, but continues in a hushed voice. “Is that how you broke into the supply closet at city hall?”

“Magician’s code,” Meis says, sipping into his cappuccino with a gleam in his eye.

“Well, we also want to incorporate some of the choreography from Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’s scene. Maybe some Rum Tum Tugger? For the flair,” Gueira says as he talks through his croque madame. 

“You said… words. In an order. And out of context,” Lio takes a bite into his smoked salmon bagel.

“Basically, we want to do a double cartwheel and sex it up,” Meis clarifies. Gueira nods as he swallows his food.

Lio stares at them. “A double cartwheel.”

“So what we do is Meis does a handstand, I grab onto him, then I use my legs to do a cartwheel while Meis supports it,” Gueira explains.

Lio can only nod, but he knows it’s a bad idea and that they’ll end up injuring themselves.

“It’s a bad idea,” Lio sputters. “I feel like you two will end up injuring yourselves.”

“Boss, we appreciate your concern, but I have some experience in acrobatics and Gueira has done ballet as a kid. I think we can handle ourselves,” Meis assures him.

“Yeah! We’ll be fine!”

“Okay... ” Lio says, still skeptical, but he relents.

He can trust his generals to take care of themselves in the months before their ceremony.

They’ll be fine.

  
  
  
  
  


“Hello, is this Lio Fotia?”

Lio pulls away from his phone and checks the time. 3:45 am.

“Yes, this is he,” Lio speaks into the phone.

“We’re calling you because you’re an emergency contact for a Mr. Gueira--” Before the woman on the phone can finish, Lio is already out of bed.

“Mmm Lio?” Galo groans as he stirs in his sleep.

“Hospital-- Gueira-- I need to--”

Galo bolts up from his bed and scoops Lio into his arms, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll get the bike ready while you get the things, okay?”

“Okay… okay...” Lio nods before he pulls away. “At least put some pants on first, okay?”

Galo looks down and sees his pantsless and briefless waist. “OH SHIT. Yeah, that’s a good call.”

They were out of the apartment and on the road within five minutes.

The hospital at four in the morning was eerily quiet, so when Galo and Lio barreled into the front desk, they didn’t notice how much of a ruckus they made until the nurse stationed at the reception desk explained the situation to them.

Visiting hours weren’t until eight, but seeing how frazzled the two were, the nurse allowed them in so long as they were quiet.

When Galo and Lio entered Gueira’s room, they found him and Meis playing cards between the cast on his leg.

 _“You,_ ” Lio hisses as he strides over to Gueira, pulling his head into a tight hug. “You two have _no idea_ how insanely worried I was getting a call at three-something-in-the-morning from the hospital.”

“Uhhh, yeah we do,” Gueira says, voice muffled into Lio’s chest. “Try seeing you pass the fuck out and not wake up for like, two days.”

“Or getting a call that you fell from the second floor getting a kid out of a burning house.”

“We’re still playing catch up with you on hospital visit scares, boss.”

“That’s-- fair,” Lio sighs as he leans against the wall.

“What happened, though?” Galo asks as he pulls Lio toward him.

“Was this because of your dance?”

Galo’s eyes and mouth went wide. “You guys are doing a choreographed dance? To what?”

“They wanted to do a double cartwheel--”

 _“ARE YOU GUYS DOING MUNGOJERRIE AND RUMPLETEAZER???? ”_ Galo asks, in a shouting whisper, clearly already too invested in their dance.

 _“Were._ We _were_ doing that,” Meis bows his head solemnly. “And also, this didn’t happen when we were practicing-- we were killing it. It happened after.”

“I tripped.”

“He tripped.”

“My shoelaces were untied. I tripped down the stairs.”

Galo hisses in pain, sympathetically. “Shit, that sucks.”

 _“Buuuuut_ the wedding isn’t for like, another three months. Doc says I should be good in six to eight weeks!”

“I am _not_ letting you do a double cartwheel right after your leg has healed.”

“But _boooooss!”_ Gueira whines. _“_ It’ll be like, a whole month after!”

_“No.”_

“What if they do everything else, but the double cartwheel?” Galo offers.

Lio considers it and sighs. “If you two stick to the choreography for Mr. Mistoffolees, it’ll be doable.”

“But boss it’s _our wedding!_ _We wanna do a double cartwheel! It’ll be so cool!”_

“No double cartwheels until the doctor says your leg has fully healed.”

“But we’d be married by then!”

“You two are already married.”

“It’s _different!”_

Galo and Meis share a look before Meis tilts his head towards the door. Galo nods.

“Uh… me and Meis are gonna get some coffee. Any requests?”

“Will the coffee let me able to do a double cartwheel?” Gueira asks.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh…” Galo bluescreens and before he can drag out his confusion, Meis guides him out the door and leaves Lio to getting it through Gueira that they can’t do the double cartwheel.

When they’re out of the door, Galo lets out a whistle.

“Do you think that you guys will actually do the double cartwheel?”

“Nope,” Meis says, with a pop at the end.

“Wow, no hesitation.”

Meis sighs as he hits the French vanilla button, letting it fill up before taking another cup and hitting the hot chocolate button. When it’s done, Meis takes a third cup, carefully transferring half of the hot chocolate and half of the French vanilla coffee into it. Galo stares at Meis as he reuses the cup the French vanilla coffee was in for another one. Silence permeates the air along with hints of vanilla and chocolate until Meis is reaching for another cup and looks back at Galo. 

“Which one do you want?”

“Uh,” Galo considers his options. “Cappuccino sounds good, thanks.”

When it’s done, Meis hands Galo his cup. They both look toward the room where Gueira’s in, faintly hearing Gueira and Lio’s conversation.

“Wanna wait a few more minutes?” Galo offers.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing.”

They take the four drinks and a seat around the table where an abandoned jigsaw puzzle sat. They set the drinks aside, letting them cool down as they quietly sort out the pieces. 

A few minutes have passed and Meis looks across the table to see Galo quietly humming to himself as he gathers up the edge pieces, putting each piece next to each other to see if there’s a match. Seeing how engrossed Galo is in the puzzle, Meis throws his head back to see if anything’s changed in Gueira’s room.

Well, it was quieter now. Gueira probably got it all out of his system, giving Lio a chance to talk some sense into him

Meis whips his head forward and sighs.

“Something up?” Galo asks, sliding over three pieces into place.

“I’m going to be honest with you here,” Meis says, propping an arm on the table, his chin resting on the palm of his hand as he slides a few pieces toward him with his other hand. “I’m disappointed that we can’t do the double cartwheel, too.”

“Yeah?”

Meis nods, now sorting out his own pieces. “Yeah. But I know that we can’t. We shouldn’t. I wouldn’t let Gueira do it immediately after his legs heal, either. But I’m still… disappointed? That we can’t do it. Once boss said that he wanted the wedding to be _us_ _,_ we agreed that we wanted it to be batshit _ridiculous_ and it feels like we can’t really give it our all.”

He slides a match over to its place. “Or something like that.”

Galo hums as he brings more pieces to his side.

“Nah, I get it,” He affirms. “It sucks that you can’t do it at your wedding. I would’ve loved to see it.”

“We were killing it.”

“But even though you can’t do it at your wedding, it doesn’t mean that you can’t ever do it,” Galo slides another match into place before he looks up at Meis. “Your wedding is just the start of your life together-- at least in the eyes of Promepolis. You two have _been_ married. So even if you can’t do it _now,_ you have the rest of your lives to do the double cartwheel together.”

Meis blinks at Galo.

“Maybe you can do it at some other party, crash it and show the other people up.”

“Oh yeah? Like what party?”

“Hmmm… what about Remi’s birthday party?” Galo lets out a snort. “He’d get so stressed out once he realizes what you guys are doing. It’d be hilarious.”

Meis considers it. “Boss would get a kick out of it.”

“Hell yeah, he will.”

They chuckle to themselves, the conversation fading out as they continue to work on the puzzle. A couple minutes after, Galo stops, perking up, a cue for Meis that Lio was making his way toward them.

“How’d it go?” Galo asks.

“Gueira’s upset, but I think I’ve convinced him to tone down the intensity of the choreography,” Lio says as Meis hands him his drink. It was the perfect temperature. Still warm, but not mouth-burning. “I know I had my reservations about your choice for it, but he made me watch your rehearsal video. I still can’t believe you two were able to pull it off.”

“Yeah,” Meis sighs. He glances at Galo, then back to Lio. “But we can do it some other time.”

Lio offers a sympathetic smile to Meis and pats his back.

“Why don’t you go home, boss? I can handle it from here,” Meis says.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I’m glad you stopped by, though,” Meis pauses. “Both of you.”

Galo and Lio walk back to Gueira’s room before they leave to say their goodbyes. Lio gives Gueira a firm, but gentle reminder about their conversation as Galo offers him his drink. 

Once they’re gone, Meis takes Gueira’s hand and squeezes it.

“Hey,” Meis whispers. “What if we do the double cartwheel at Remi’s birthday party instead?”

Gueira’s eyes perk up. “Now that’s an idea. Keep talking, babe.”

  
  
  
  
  


“Lio, Lio, Lio, Lio.”

Lio grumbles, shifting around as he hears his name being chanted. He can sleep another five minutes. Just as he thinks he’s about to drift back to sleep, he can feel the bed start to shake.

 _“LIOLIOLIOLIOLIOLIOLIOLIOLIOLIOLIO,”_ Galo practically _shouts_ now, as he’s jumping on the bed. He keeps going until Lio grabs a pillow and throws it at Galo’s face, causing him to drop down on the bed. _“LIOOOOOOO!”_

Lio groans as Galo shakes his body. And it isn’t until Lio grabs Galo’s face in his hands that he stops. _“What.”_

“I know you’re hella mad at me, and I deserve that, but I have a great excuse,” Galo says through his smushed face. Lio lets go, allowing Galo to open the gallery app on his phone. “You’ll _never_ believe who we ran into at work today.”

“Was it the guy who did the puppet work of the firefighter character on that one show you keep talking about?” Lio asks, now sitting up now.

Galo pauses to look up at Lio. _“What._ Have you seen him? Dude, don’t joke about that.”

Lio shakes his head. “Alright, if it isn’t him, then who did you-- oh my God.”

As soon as Galo shoved his phone into Lio’s face, the latter’s eyes widened, taking the phone into his hands, zooming in on a particular area.

“Is that--? How did you--?”

“I’ll explain it later, ‘cause I’m frickin’ tired right now, but before I knock out, we got a whole lunch date with them to iron out the kinks and I want Meis and Gueira to be there, but I also wanna surprise them some other way, and we _do_ have the rehearsal earlier that day, and I brought up the wedding and the rehearsal to see if they were interested but I wanted to see if it was cool with you first, so…”

“Are you kidding me? _Absolutely_ do it, it’ll be--”

Before Lio could continue, Galo was already snoring away.

Lio smiled tiredly as he pulled Galo’s fuzzy blanket over his blanket, tucking him in before he rolled himself back in the thick comforter, head resting near Galo’s.

  
  
  


Friday rolls around and everyone is in some sort of a funk.

Gueira’s leg has healed enough to the point that he got his cast removed, but he was discouraged from doing anything extraneous, meaning that he couldn’t even slide across the dance floor on his knees. To his disappointment, he and Meis had to stick to the original choreography of Mr. Mistoffelees, which was _fine_ , but it wasn’t as cool compared to what they worked out with their choreographer.

Friday morning was the calm before the storm that was the bachelor parties Lio and Galo had planned out for each of the grooms. It was going to be a night that would rival the wedding party, so they were mostly just bearing through the rehearsal with the thought of the bachelor party the night after acting as their motivation.

Lucia was especially adverse to it, stating that they were literally just going to walk down a straight line, but Lio made his case, doing his best not to give away the surprise. Galo was probably the worst at it, with his leg bouncing hard enough for the ground to shake a little. He passed it off saying he probably drank way too much coffee that morning, which wasn’t entirely a lie, but it certainly didn’t help.

At first, Lio was stressed out at the fact that they couldn’t rehearse at the actual venue, but after Galo’s news earlier that week, he figured that it was a blessing in disguise that they had to have it at the rec center. It was easier to hide the surprise in a closed area compared to an open one, after all.

They go through the rehearsal pretty quickly, so when they reach the ring exchange, they expected Lio to break down what would happen, since it’s what he had been doing.  
  
“Now, for the rings,” Lio pauses, earning a few confused looks when he didn’t continue with the rehearsal. It’s a few moments of silence before they hear the door creak open.

Everyone’s head turns towards the door, curious at the sudden interruption. It’s silent before they hear it: light panting and the skittering of four paws on the hardwood floor.

The door opens with a flourish, revealing an elderly man and one small Chihuahua.

_“REESE!!!”_

It doesn’t take long for Meis and Gueira to leave the alter and rush after the dog.

Galo supposes that if this were a movie, this would be the part that would be played in slow motion with an entire choir singing in the background as Meis, Gueira, and Reese the dog meet in the middle of the aisle to embrace each other.

It was beautiful, it was heartwarming, it was absolutely _glorious._

It also stopped the rehearsal in its tracks, but absolutely no one cared.

Reese, the dog of Burnish legends, was alive and in their presence.

  
  
  


Suffice to say, the return of Reese the dog into their lives was exactly what was needed to kickstart the festivities.

After the rehearsal, the group rushed out of the rec center to go out to the rec center’s yard to play with Reese. Despite being eight years old, Reese was energetic as Meis, Gueira, and Lio remembered him. As the engaged couple, Galo, Lucia, and Varys rolled around in the grass to play with Reese, the rest of the group watched on, sitting on the benches under the shade of the rec center’s roof.

Thirty minutes of non-stop playing with Reese later, brought the five back where they were greeted with bottles of cold water.

“Boss!” Gueira says between breaths. “How’d you find Reese? We looked _everywhere!_ ”

 _“I_ didn’t find him,” Lio says. “Galo did.”

“Yup!” Galo beams. “It was a complete coincidence, too!”

Filos, Reese’s owner, nods with a smile as he picks up Reese, who had just finished lapping up his bowl of water, onto his lap and starts to pet him. “I was frying some chicken for my grandkids, since they were coming over later that day. I accidentally started a grease fire, and frazzled as I was, I forgot that pouring water on it does more harm than good. But luckily for me, Reese had sat on my phone and accidentally dialed Burning Rescue!”

“And then we got there! Thankfully, nothing got damaged too badly,” Galo nods.

“I have to replace the stove and some cooking utensils, but what’s a few things compared to this old guy,” Filos ruffled some of Reese’s hair before patting it back flat.

“And when we were checking his vitals, Mr. Filos was telling us stories about him before we were like, “Wait, that kind of sounds like Reese”! So we asked and here we are!” Galo finishes the story by spreading his arms wide. “I thought it’d be nice to surprise you guys with him.”

Meis and Gueira gave each other a look, before turning their heads back towards Galo. Gueira was the first to speak. “Thanks, man.”

“Yeah, thank you. We really appreciate that.”

“Oh wait!!! But there’s one more thing that I wanted to ask but thought that you guys should ask yourselves!!”

Gueira raises a brow. “And that’s…?”

“If Reese can be the ring bearer!” They shoot him a confused look, not knowing what a ring bear implied. But Galo continues saying, “Or the ring dog, haha!” 

“Oh. **_OH._ **”

“Can we… do that?” Gueira asks Filos.

“Doesn’t hurt to try, son,” Filos shrugs casually, even though he already knows the answer he’ll give them. And if they didn’t ask, he’d insist.

“Mr. Filos, can you and Reese attend our wedding so that Reese can act as our ring bear _er_?” Meis asks.

The edges of Filos’ eyes cringle into a smile. “I would love to.”

Meis continues. “...And can I please also have him as my best man.”

 _“_ ** _WHAT._** _”_ Echoes around the group, from Gueira especially.

“Babe, _what the hell,”_ Gueira is standing now. Lio is trying to get him to sit down, knowing where this conversation was going to lead to. “ **_I_ **wanted to ask if Reese can be my best man.”

“But _I_ already asked.”

_“We agreed that we’d ask at the same time.”_

“Oh good grief,” Lio sighs, standing up as he fishes something out of his pocket. “We _all_ agreed that if there were any disagreements, we’d settle it fairly like we did when we were in Mad Burnish.”

A sigh of relief makes its waves around the group.

“Okay. Meis, Gueira, take a seat on the grass. There’s no chairs, so you’ll have to sit criss cross applesauce on the floor. Galo, get a fire extinguisher,” Lio directs, pausing when he finally procures what he was looking for. “We don’t have our Promare anymore, but I guess this will do.”

“Lio. Why do you have a lighter and dare I ask **_why_ ** you asked Galo to get a fire extinguisher,” Aina asks, slowly and carefully.

“Wait, what the hell, _Lio_?!” Galo asks from the door. Aina is taken aback at the fact that he’s already ran out and returned with a fire extinguisher. She supposes that she shouldn’t be surprised, but that’s a thought for another time. “Why do you still have a lighter? I thought you quit!”

“I didn’t want to waste it,” Lio says defensively as he walked toward Meis and Gueira, who were ready for Lio to initiate the dispute settlement.

_“Lio.”_

“Okay gentlemen, you know the rules of Fried Chicken,” Lio starts, flicking the wheel of the lighter to ignite it. “It’s a game of endurance, so the first to extinguish the flame loses and the winner gets to have Reese as his best man. As usual, the fire will be on your crotch. Are you ready?”

The two nod, agreeing to the terms and conditions, but before Lio can set their crotches aflame, Galo tackles him to the ground while Aina follows with an extinguisher in hand, in case they actually _did_ catch on fire. Thankfully, she didn’t have to use it, but the engaged duo are shouting at Galo, as he wrestles the lighter out of Lio’s hands.

He’s successful, but when he sees Lio, Meis, and Gueira start to chase him, he immediately books it and they start to run laps around the yard. Reese sees them run around and hops off of Filos’s lap, happily following along.

Aina watches the display in complete awe and fatigue, plopping down on the grass while Galo gets a running start to hop over the fence and into the street.

Gueira, with his leg still healing, rolls to a stop and watches from the sidelines. Reese noticed that he broke off from the group, stopped running and putters over to Gueira, licking his hand.

Gueira’s face lights up as he picks up Reese. _“ HOLY CRAP, REESE PICKED ME! _”

Meis and Lio are panting by the fence, having run out of steam. But Meis had enough energy to let out a devastating wail, clutching the grass as Reese licked Gueira’s face. 

Back at the benches, Filos lets out a chuckle and turns to the rest of the group. “Y’all like to have fun, don’t you? This wedding is going to be a blast.”

Ignis gives him a look. “You do not know the half of it.”

  
  
  


After five more minutes of Meis and Gueira’s antics, Ignis figured that the bit had run long enough and had Varys pick the couple up by their collars like kittens and had them face each other and sort things out. They eventually did, with both of them agreeing that it was already late in the planning to have Reese be their best man and that in their heart, he and Lio were simultaneously their best men.

So it all worked out.

But, as everyone parted ways to go get ready for the bachelor party they were set to attend, Lio started to worry.

Galo didn’t come back.

He figured that he would run around the block a few times and return within five to ten minutes, but he never did.

Lio supposed that he had gone straight to the meeting spot for Gueira’s bachelor party, but Galo would’ve called ahead if he did. He started to worry.

When Lio opened the door to his and Galo’s apartment, he was relieved to see him sitting on the couch. But the relief is immediately snuffed out once he sees what Galo’s holding in his hand.

It’s two and a half boxes of cigarettes. 

“These were next to your computer. I think you forgot to hide them,” Galo says, casting a joke out right from the bat, even though they both knew that it wasn’t going to get a bite.

“Galo...” Lio sighs, shuffling his feet as he makes his way to the couch. “Before you start, I know I said I quit, but the last few months have been stressful and--”

“No, I know,” Galo shakes his head and places the boxes on the table. “I can’t stop you from pulling all nighters, drinking Nine Lokos, or smoking. And I won’t make you throw these away, that won’t do anything. But, _Lio..._ ”

Galo reaches for Lio’s hand and squeezes it. “I want you to take better care of yourself. I _want_ you to be able to live a long life, whether it’s with me or not, I--”

“What do you mean with you or not? Are you suggesting we break up?”

“What? No! I didn’t say that, I’m just saying--”

“Then why did you say it like that?”

“Because I want you to be happy and alive whether I’m in the picture or not! I _want_ to be with you but--”

“But what?”

 _“But I have no idea what’s gonna happen next!_ ” Galo takes a moment to breathe. When he does, silence cuts through the air like a dull knife. It’s painful as the tension twists around them. “I… dunno. I just. I just wanna remind you that I love you, okay?”

“Okay. I love you, too.”

Galo offers him a smile and kisses his cheek. “Next time I see you will be at the wedding, then.”

Lio chuckles lightly. “We won’t be able to speak until the reception.”

“I’ll miss you, firebug.”

“Same here, love.”

Lio feels like he wants to say something else, do something else. But he can only watch Galo’s back as he leaves through the door.

A part of him wants to scream, another part of him wants to chase Galo down to talk about what just happened, but _another_ part of him wants to delay the inevitable conversation they’re going to have about this because they can’t just _not_ talk about it.

What did he _mean_ by saying he wanted him to be happy whether it was with him or not? That he _wants_ to be with him, _“but”?_

Was there an alternative to what they already had?

Lio rubbed away the stinging sensation in his eyes.

Fuck this.

Lio did not have the time or energy to think about this. He had something to do.

And that was to give Meis a wild-ass bachelor party.  
  
  


The term “wild-ass” in relation to Meis’s bachelor party and how appropriate it was to give it that attribution is debatable.

If you can call sipping mimosas while eating personally grilled food in the desert to be wild-ass before preparing to set a bunch of junk on fire to be wild-ass, then sure. It was wild-ass.

But, if you were riding on the adrenaline of lighting your friend’s molotov cocktail before he chucked it at the starter pile to forget about a recent argument with your boyfriend for it to count as a wild-ass party, then no. It was not wild-ass.

It was just _ass._

“Lio, you haven’t finished your food,” Varys says, bringing Lio out of his thoughts.

Lio had walked back to where they were eating to do a little bit of clean up as Meis, Aina, and Remi started the group off on the burning random objects portion of the night and Varys followed him to help.

“Oh,” Lio looks down at his plate. “I’ll save it for later. Unless you want it?”

Varys frowns. “Did something happen with Galo?”

“Hey, we can burn the plates since they’re made out of paper--” Aina was jogging over to them before she slowed to a stop. “Hey, is something up, Lio?”

“Boss!” Meis shouts from his position and throws one last thing into the fire before making his way to the group. “You good?”

“I’m _fine_. This is _your_ bachelor party, not my pity party,” Lio says, pushing his way towards the bonfire. “Let’s go set some things on fire.”

“Did something happen with Galo?” Remi asks, handing Lio a piece of cardboard.

“No.”

Remi chuckles as he pushes his glasses up. “Thought so. What did he do?”

“Nothing,” Lio grunts as he tosses it in. “Nothing worth mentioning.”

Remi glances at Lio as he throws one of the paper plates like a frisbee into the fire. “I’m under your skin.”

“The only things under my skin are oil glands, hair bulbs, nerve fibers, blood vessels, and a bit of fatty tissue.”

“You forgot about Ruffini’s corpuscle,” Remi laughs. “Oh my God, you’re rattled. Checkmate.”

Varys, Aina, and Meis all squint at them.

“I don’t know if they’re doing a bit or if they’re serious,” Varys whispers to them.

“Neither do I,” Meis agrees. “And at this point, I’m too afraid to ask.”

Aina shifts her position. “I feel like… they’re quoting something, but I can’t tell because it’s something they’d say anyway...”

“Okay,” Meis sighs as he starts to walk toward Lio, clapping his hands. “Since it’s _my_ party, _I_ get to decide what we do, right, boss? Like, my word is final?”

“...Right?”

Meis locks an arm around Lio’s shoulders. “No take backs?”

“...Sure?”

“Good,” At that moment, Meis starts to drag Lio back to where they were sitting. And Lio was _absolutely_ struggling. 

_“Meis, what the FUCK.”_

“Aina, get the glasses back out. Remi, prep another round of mimosas. Fuck it. Make some of the good shit, too.”

“The Nine Lokos?”

Meis clicks his tongue. “You know it.”

“Varys-- please help me hold Lio.”

“Uhh...” Varys looks at Lio, who is thrashing in Meis’s grasp and thinks about the time he tried to do the same thing to an alley cat while he was trying to feed it and ended up getting an infection. Lio did not have claws, but he had the ability to kick his ass if he really tried to. And he knew that he could.

“Varys, please trust me,” Meis says. “Also, I repeat, this is _My. Party._ ”

“Okay...” Varys walks over to Meis, albeit reluctantly as he figures out how to help him keep Lio still. “Sorry, Lio.”

 _“Say sorry by letting me go,”_ Lio seethes.

Varys glances at Meis, who shakes his head and mouths _‘My. Party.’_ to him.

“Sorry, but you _did_ say it’s Meis’s party.”

“We are going to talk through this,” Meis says, looking at Lio in the eye. “Because you always put everyone else before yourself, and while we were in Mad Burnish, I let that slide because I would’ve done the same, too. But we aren’t in Mad Burnish anymore and this isn’t a life or death situation. This is a straight up _life_ situation. We are going to accept this spiral _for you_ because _I_ want you to because _I care_ _about you!”_

“Here’s the Nine Loko,” Remi says, as he eyes the drink with both fear and admiration because while he thought it was absolute _nonsense_ to mix a barbituate with a stimulant, he wasn’t opposed to its existence if it meant quelling whatever the fuck it was that Lio was going through so they could hold an actual conversation.

Meis thanks Remi as he is handed the drink. “Now sip it up, boss.”

Lio huffed, now out of steam, and if he were to be honest, very touched at Meis’ speech. But he wasn’t going to say that outright so he just glared as he stretched his neck to reach the silly straw. He struggled a bit getting it to his mouth, but once he did, his glare softened.

“You good?”

“Mmm.”

“I’m going to tell Varys to let you go. Are you going to run away to avoid talking about this if he does?”

“...No.”

“Are you sure.”

“Yes.”

“WIll you promise me that?”

“...”

“Boss.”

“...nn...”

Meis sighs, leaning back as his hands are rested on his waist. He doesn’t want to pull the big guns, but Lio is giving him no choice.

 _“_ **_Deucalion Fotia._ ** _”_

“Who the _fuck_ \--” Remi whispers, but Aina slaps him on the stomach to prevent him from ruining Meis’s progress.

“You did _not_ just full name me.”

“Oh, but I did, boss. This is a full name situation.”

“Okay, _fine--_ **_fine._** I’ll be good!”

“Good!” Meis nods and glances up at Varys. “Please release him.”

Lio half expected to be dropped unceremoniously, so he was glad when Varys placed him back on the ground gently.

“Okay,” Meis hands Lio the drink. “So, what happened?”

“Hold on,” Lio says. He hands Meis the silly straw before proceeding to tip the glass into his mouth. They all stare him down with a mixed bag of feelings, watching him chug the concoction down like he found an oasis in the desert. “Okay, _now_ I’m ready.”

“We have medical and safety kits on the bikes, right?” Aina asks Remi and Varys.

“One of each for both on all of our bikes like we agreed, yes,” Remi nods.

Varys looks at Meis and Lio. “Let’s hope it’s enough.”

  
  
  


_“Broooooooooooooooooooo, what. The. Fuck._ _Is. On. Your. Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind,”_ Gueira asks Galo as he steps out of the giant hamster ball of a contraption.

While Gueira also wanted to go out into the desert to burn random things, he also knew that he could do that any day. But what he _couldn’t_ do on a regular day was to play around with Lucia’s inventions, especially the ones that weren’t given enough testing and therefore, the most dangerous.

Which meant that they were the most fun to try out.

Gueira still thought that as he stumbled towards Galo.

“How was it?” Lucia asks from the railings above them.

They rented out an empty warehouse to test out all of Lucia’s inventions, so her things were scattered around the floor as Lucia, Ignis, and Vinny sat on a small walkway to get a better look of things. And also be away from the hazard.

“Good!” Gueira shouts back. “You should do something about the whole dizziness thing, though. And the whole constant fear of falling thing, too.”

“Sorry dude, but that last one’s on you and your balance,” Lucia types Gueira’s input on the notes in her computer. “Think about it like this: you’re not _wearing_ the Heelys, the Heelys is wearing _you._ ”

“Holy crap, you’re right,” Gueira says as he shakes his hair after taking it off his helmet.

“Okay, what do you wanna test next?”

“You got anything that reads minds? I’d love to figure out what’s in Galo’s!”

Lucia hums as she looks below, then throws a glance at Ignis. He nods. They both make their way to Galo and Gueira, with Lucia slipping past the railings and hopping down from the second floor, Vinny hopping off of her head to one of her coat pockets, while Ignis took the stairs.

“We don’t need to have an invention to read Galo’s mind, he’s an open book,” Ignis says.

“Captain, are you cereal?” Lucia asks. “I’ve tried to guess what’s on Galo’s mind for _years_ and I’m always wrong!”

“I am. Galo, if I may.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh,” Galo was hesitant, but he _was_ curious. “Sure?”

Ignis takes off his shades and looks at Galo directly in the eye. It stretches for a few minutes before Ignis puts the sunglasses back on.

“He’s thinking about Lio.”

_“Anyone could’ve guessed that!”_

“Didn’t you _just_ say that you were always wrong when it came to guessing what’s on Galo’s mind?”

“But this is different.”

As Gueira and Lucia argue, Ignis continues. 

“You two got into an argument and it ended weird because you had to be at the bachelor parties, so it’s still bothering you,” Ignis adjusts his glasses. “Was it about the cigarettes he bought at the corner store?”

Galo blinks. “How’d you know about that?”

“We shop at the same one,” Ignis shrugs. “Lio saw me, but ran away after he bought the packs.”

“Yeah, that checks out,” Galo sighs.

“Didn’t he say that he’d quit?” Lucia asks.

“Wait, boss was smoking?”

Lucia eyes Gueira. “Don’t _you_ smoke?”

“Yeah, but that’s different!”

“Did you get him to throw it away?”

“No,” Galo crouches on the floor, in a ball. “I don’t wanna tell him what he can and can’t do, because that’s _bogus,_ but I also want him to be less reckless and take better care of himself ‘cause I care about him, but I feel like I can’t really say that ‘cause _I’m_ reckless too.”

Galo shoots up, hands in his hair now.

“And then I start to think about how I’m so _freaking_ stupid that I don’t know what I wanna do sometimes and then I’m like, haha…!” He throws in a sideways peace sign to distract him from how watery his eyes are starting to feel. “What if Lio figures it out and wants to do his own thing without me? I want him to be happy and alive because he deserves to be and if I don’t have to be in the picture for that to happen, that’s fine, but also, like--”

Galo strides forward and rolls across the floor on his Heelys and hides his face in the crook of his arm while the other stretches out and up. _“Uh oh!! My abandonment issues are flaring up!!! Haha!”_

Lucia and Gueira glance at each other, because they have been in Galo’s position before: pushing through a crisis while making light of it even though all they wanted to do was just walk into the ocean.

Ignis doesn’t quite understand, but he still understands when someone needs to be reminded of how much they’re appreciated.

He makes his way toward Galo, but Lucia and Gueira walk faster.

“Bro,” Gueira says, shaking Galo’s shoulders. “We are going to fucking _party._ ”

Lucia nods. “Head. Empty. _Absolutely._ _No. Thoughts.”_

Ignis sighs as the trio chant Lucia’s words as they make their way out of the warehouse. And follows them out of it.

  
  
  
  


“Galo.”

“Nn...”

“Galo Galo Galo Galo Galo Galo Galo Galo Galo Galo--” Galo felt a weight next to him before he felt a pair of hands lightly slap either side of his cheeks in quick succession.

“Huh???” Galo peered open his eyes to see Lucia in a disarray. “Where’s the fire? Oh shit, _is_ there a fire?”

“No! Gueira’s missing. And he left his phone behind. And the wedding is in a few hours!”

“Oh. Ohhhhhhh noo……” Galo whipped the sheets off of him and was grateful that he slept in the same clothes he wore last night. “Where’s Ignis?”

“Still sleeping. I figured I’d wake you up first ‘cause you’d probably find him quicker than either of us!”

“Okay. We just need to not panic. Wake Ignis up, I’ll go look for him,” Galo says as he grabs his keys and phone. “You call Lio if I don’t find him in an hour.”

“Gotcha.”

“And keep your phone on! I’ll call if I find him!” Galo looks over his shoulder to face Lucia as he cracks the front door of Ignis’ house open. He’s about to make a mad dash to go to his apartment to get his bike, but he trips once he leaves the front porch. He groans, looking at what he tripped over and dials his phone.

 _“Is something wrong?? That was quick!”_ Lucia says on the other end of the phone.

“I found him.”

The door swings open.

“Oh, what the fuck,” Lucia steps out to help Galo up. He accepts her hand and stumbles up, the two stepping towards Gueira afterward. Lucia lightly kicks Gueira’s shoe. “...Is he dead?”

 _“No_ , _”_ Galo says. But then he remembers how they tore it up in karaoke and how he accepted a Nine Loko and the fact that all of his impulse control for the night was out of the window when he took a drink. Ignis was their prized brain cell, but even he liked to party a little. “...Hopefully.”

Galo checked for a pulse. “He’s not dead.”

“Cool! That’s good, right?”

“Uh-uh, we are not in the clear until we wake him up,” Galo says. “Here, help me get him inside.”

  
  
Lio regrets forgetting how prone he is to hangovers the morning after.

He especially regrets it because he doesn’t get to wake up to a glass of water with a pain killer or two on top of a napkin and the smell of Galo’s cooking to help ease the headache.

Galo.

Lio sighs, rubbing his head.

After his impromptu group heart-to-heart session, all he wanted to do was track Galo down and actually talk about their conversation. But today was Meis and Gueira’s wedding day. 

He had shit to do.

Thankfully for him, they all crashed at Varys’s apartment and they were _all_ in a groggy sort of mood, with the exception of Varys, who took it upon himself to make breakfast.

All of them crawled onto the dining table, forcing themselves to act _somewhat_ put-together in order to hype themselves up for their second consecutive day of festivities. Lio had disregarded the silveware and instead shoveled the scrambled eggs in one of his hands and ate the bacon slices with the other.

As he chews on his food, he sighs.

Varys is a fantastic cook, objectively better than Galo, but nothing beats Galo’s hangover cure breakfast. Not for him.

Lio leaned forward to sip coffee from his mug, not even bothering to pick it up from the table.

He regretted it immediately when he felt the slight pulse of his headache return.

“Hey, Varys, is Lio up-- oh,” Aina runs into the kitchen in a panic, but stops to catch her breath once her eyes fall on him. “We have a bit of a problem.”

“Define, “a bit”.”

“Meis is missing,” Remi says. “We’ve looked for him everywhere, but he’s nowhere to be found. He doesn’t have his phone on him either.”

“Did you check directly outside of the door?” Lio asks.

“Yes! _And_ his place, _and_ your place, _and_ HQ, _and_ the club we went to last night, _and_ the spot we were out in the desert, he isn’t _anywhere!_ ”

“Shit,” Lio stood up, drank the rest of his coffee, and winced back once he felt the caffeine seep into him and his headache.

This was going to be a long day.

  
  


“Gueira. Buddy. Pal.”

“No, no, you’re doing it too lightly! Let me--” Lucia shoves her way in front of Galo, who was lightly slapping Gueira’s cheeks in a feeble attempt at waking him up. “Stand back.”

Galo did. Once he was at a far enough distance, Lucia took a deep breath, winding her hand back, and slapped Gueira right across the face. 

“Holy shit, Lucia!!” Galo shrieks. Lucia is now grabbing Gueira by the collar and shaking his limp body. 

“Hey, wedding boy!! Wake _the_ **_fuck_ ** _up!!!!!!!!”_

“Stop it-- you are not gonna toss him around like a rag doll!”

“I can put him in the hamster ball!”

“Lucia, no!”

Ignis steps around Lucia and Galo, who were now too deep in their argument to notice or even care about how he had hoisted Gueira up from the sofa, carrying him into the bathroom, where he placed him in the bathtub. Once Gueira was settled, he pulled a screw up, insuring that the water would be directed straight to the shower head, cranked the heat up, and let the water loose.

_“SHIT ON A BRICK, THAT’S FUCKING HOT!!!!!!”_

“Good morning, Gueira,” Ignis greets as he shifts the nozzle over to turn down the heat.

“Oh damn, captain, you got him up?” Galo asks, head peeping from the door way. “Oh, duh, water. Why didn’t we think of that?”

“‘Cause shaking him around is more fun, duh,” Lucia shrugs as she folds her arms behind her head.

“You what-- _ow!!”_ Gueira whines as he rubs his face. “Fuck, what happened last night?”

“We partied, Mad Burnish style, as you called it,” Ignis says, now handing Gueira his own hangover cure concoction.

“Where’d you-- ah, whatever,” Gueira takes the drink and glugs it down as hot water continues to spray down on him. Once he’s finished, he hands the cup to Ignis with a look of disgust. “That was _narsty,_ what the hell was that?!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ignis says cryptically as he gets up from his seat on the toilet and out of the bathroom.

“Okay, cool, now that you’re awake, we can start your wedding prep, and you’re already in the shower, so,” Galo takes Lucia by the shoulders to escort her out. Before they could exit, Ignis walks in front of them.

“Meis is missing. No one can find him and they’ve checked everywhere.”

“Their apartment? Mine and Lio’s? HQ? Any place they stopped by last night?” Galo asks, and Ignis nods for each of them. “Shit, Gueira, do you have any idea where he’d be--”

But Gueira doesn’t answer.

Instead, he wrestles his way out, soaking wet and all, and is out of the door within seconds.

“Wait, Gueira!” Galo calls out, but to no avail. “Shit.”

Galo taps the door frame with the side of his fist before he runs back in to shove his shoes on his feet. He looks back at Lucia and Ignis. “I’m gonna tail him!”

“What? Galo!!!” Lucia is about to chase after him, but Ignis places a hand on her shoulder and shakes his head.  
  
  


“Okay, that’s… something. Thanks captain.”

Lio is pacing in the bedroom, fixing his suit while Remi is washing the dishes and Varys is in the bathroom getting ready. He and Aina have been ready to go for at least an hour now. “What did he say?”

“Well,” Aina drags the word out in a high-pitched tone. “Gueira seemed like he knew where to find Meis.”

“Oh thank go--”

“And Galo went after him. And when Gueira ran out of the door, it was only after he woke up and he was soaking wet.”

“...Dare I ask why he was soaking wet if he just woke up?”

“Apparently, he partied too hard and didn’t wake up until Ignis ran hot water under him,” Aina pockets her phone.

“Great,” Lio groans, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, but gets up when he realizes he just sat on a head.

“Owww, _fuck,_ boss why are your cheeks so damn hard??” Meis groans through the sheets.

“Meis! What the fuck?” Lio gets up and yanks the sheets off of the bed. “We were looking everywhere for you! How did you even stay hidden?”

“Dunno,” Meis squints his eyes as he gets up from the bed. “What’s up with Gueira?”

“Well, he went out to look for you, but if you’re here, it’s all good. I’ll call Ignis,” Aina takes her phone out.

“Wait, wait, wait--” Lio holds his hands up. “Do you know where Gueira may have gone to look for you?”

“Well, maybe--” ”Meis stares at the blank wall over Lio’s head for a few moments. “No, not that I can think of.”

“Great.”

“But Galo’s with him, right? So we can just call him, right? Oh, hey captain--”

_“I forgot to mention. Galo left his phone on the counter when he was trying to wake him up. Gueira doesn’t have his phone on him either.”_

“Cool,” Lio nods, getting up to continue to create a dent in Varys’ floor with how much he’s been pacing and shoves his face in his hands. “Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.”

“...Boss? Are you okay?”

 _“No, I am not okay!”_ Lio cries, whipping his head out. “How are you not panicking that Gueira’s gone missing, _two hours_ before your wedding, drenched in water in the clothes he wore last night, without any idea of where he is?!”

“Because that sounds like a very Gueira thing for him to disappear right before a big thing and show up in the nick of time?”

“And you’re not worried?”

“Of course I’m worried, but boss--” Meis is interrupted when Varys walks in and stops in his tracks, seeing Aina awkwardly standing off to the side as a disheveled Meis was consoling a crying Lio.

“I’m… just… gonna grab these,” Varys says carefully as he picks his suit off the rack from his closet. “And I’m gonna go. Nice to see you, Meis.”

Meis nods.

“I’m gonna go, too,” Aina follows after Varys and closes the door behind her.

“Boss,” Meis says, pulling Lio down to sit on the bed. “I’m not worried because I know Gueira and I trust him.”

“But you don’t know what could happen after, what if he’s going to--”

Meis looks at Lio, who’s just staring at his own hands now.

“I feel like… I haven’t done enough to make Galo know that I’m not going to leave him,” Lio whispers. “So when he said “whether he’s with me or not”, I… I panicked. I promised myself that I’d give him all of the love that he deserves and that I’d be someone deserving of him, but-- I don’t know. I feel like I’ve let him down.”

“Boss,” Meis places a hand on Lio’s shoulder. “You could never let Galo down.”

“But the--”

“That’s different. Look,” Meis has Lio face him. “He may have been disappointed that you started smoking again, but it’s only because he cares about your health, and he knows that it’s something you have to go at your own pace. Quitting’s hard, especially when you use it as a stress relief and your job involves having to deal with those dipshits in the government.”

“Meis, _I’m_ in the government.”

“Yeah, but that’s different,” Meis waves his hand to emphasize his point. “Anyway, you won’t let Galo down. He loves you, boss. And you’re good for each other.”

Lio chuckles. “And to think that you and Gueira were skeptical of him just months ago.”

“Well, things happen,” Meis shrugs. “He’s not as dumb as we thought he was from that first fight. Plus, he makes you happy.”

Meis gets up and stretches. “If he’s the one tailing Gueira, I have enough trust in him that he’ll be able to bring him to the venue in time.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, he convinced you to pilot that mech with him, didn’t he?”

  
  


“Gueira, holy-- shit--” 

Galo slows down to a stop once he finally caught up with Gueira. “Are you okay?”

 _“No!_ ” Gueira shouts from the top of the hill, before making his way down to where Galo stood, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Between the two of us, Meis is the more put-together one. If _he’s_ missing _today_ , what does that say? What does that mean? _I’m freaking out, man!!!”_

“Whoa, whoa--” Galo places his hands on Gueira’s shoulders to get him to stop shaking him. “Slow down, bud.”

“I can’t! I’m-- just-- AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!” Gueira runs to the top of the hill and screams, and runs down to the base of the field and towards a small pond, slapping the surface of the water, before continuing his run.

 _“Fuck,_ he’s pulling a _Bet On It._ He’s not even singing. This is bad…” As Gueira runs around the field, Galo watches at the top of the hill. Galo takes a deep breath and breaks out into a run, chasing after him. “Gueira!!! Let! Me! Help!”

“How can you help?!”

“I!!! Don’t know!!” Galo confesses. “I don’t know enough about you and Meis to make any solid conclusions or offer any meaningful advice, but if there’s one thing I _do_ know is that Meis wouldn’t give up on you like that! Not without a fight!!”

Galo sighs in relief when he notices Gueira’s speed slow down, allowing him to catch up with him and his breath. He puts a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Listen man, Meis loves you! Enough to want to get married under Promepolis law with you, which is wild, especially with how much you two talk about the bureaucratic incompetence or whatever.”

“...We get marriage benefits and stuff. We’d be allowed in if either of us goes back into the hospital again.”

“Yeah. And he wants to go through with this to be able to do all of that, and more, for you.”

“But why would he just up and disappear?”

“Maybe he’s just as nervous as you are?”

Gueira scoffs. “I doubt it, he probably passed out somewhere in whoever’s place they’re staying at, in spot that’s in plain sight, but makes it harder to find him.”

“That’s… awfully specific.”

“It’s happened more times than you think-- oh, _fuck,”_ Gueira slaps his forehead. “Gimmie your phone, I wanna call boss to tell him to check under the sheets of the bedroom.”

“Sure?” Galo reaches in for both of his pockets. “Uh oh.”

“Dude!”

“Listen, I was chasing after you!”

Gueira slaps Galo’s back as he breaks into a run. “C’mon!! We gotta go!”

Galo could only nod as he followed Gueira back to the bikes.

  
  
  
  


“We’re here!! We’re here!!!”

“You _fucks!!_ Don’t scare us like that again!!” Lucia scolds, taking her gloves-- worn specifically for moments like this-- and slaps them with it. “Also, you two fucking _reek!_ Into the showers with you, we’ve got less than an hour and a half until the groom here has to be where he’s supposed to be!”

When they arrived at the venue, they were approximately five minutes late.

For a wedding day, that’s fairly late. But considering what they had to go through the morning, five minutes late was a miracle.

When Gueira and his entourage arrived, they were greeted by Lio, who rose from his seat, breaking away from Aina, who had been doing her best to keep him together since Meis was already where he was supposed to be.

 _“You,_ ” Lio says firmly, taking long strides towards Gueira, bringing him into a tight hug, pulling away from him, and pinching his cheeks, all in less than a minute. “Aina and Lucia filled me in. But there’s no time for that. Get in there with Meis.”

“Alright, alright!”

“I’m gonna check in with Filos and Reese,” Aina says.

And with that, Gueira is out in the backyard.  
  
  


“Meis?”

“Gueira?”

“Stop, do not even dare to turn around yet,” Remi instructs Meis.

“I would like to see my husband, Remi,” Meis grumbles.

“Aw, babe, Lio hasn’t given us his word yet!”

“We’ve _been_ married.”

“Still.”

“Varys, are you ready with your camera?” Remi asks.

“All set on my end!”

“Okay, when I give you two the cue, both of you will open your eyes and turn around,” Remi says as he stands next to Varys and the filmographer. He allows Meis and Gueira to get their giggles out as their filmographer readies her own camera. She nods at Remi, and he nods back.

He sighs under his breath as he begrudgingly gives them their cue, reading it off the card Meis practically shoved into his hands with the flattest tone in his voice. “...Are y’all rootin’ tootin’ shooting’ motherfuckers ready?”

“You forgot to say howdy, y’all,” Meis adds in.

“You know what? Just turn around. Please.”

“Aw, Remi, c’mon, _with more feeling,_ ” Gueira says through snickers.

“I will not.”

“Pleeeaase?”

“You’re going to feel something if you don’t turn around.”

“Hey. That’s my husband you’re speaking to,” Meis warns. “I’ll kick your ass.”

“Oh for the love of--” Remi sighs.

“Remi, just say it,” Varys says.

“Yeah, Remi!”

“Whoooo! Yeah!! _Remiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!”_

“We’re the grooms, Remi, you gotta do it!”

“Yeah! Remi! Remi! Remi!” Gueira starts the chant, with Meis following. And to Remi’s displeasure, Varys and the filmographer join them.

The door to the rec center bangs.

 _“Remi Puguna, you_ **_will_ ** _put up with their shenanigans if it means going back on schedule!”_ Lio scolds from the other side of the door, earning some ooooohs from the grooms.

“You all are _children,”_ he huffs as he starts to read out the card, through gritted teeth and a horrendous accent. “Howdy, _y’all._ Are y’all rootin’ tootin’ shooting’ motherfuckers ready? Say yee haw if you are.”

_“Yee-haw!”_

“On the count of three, be prepared to see your pardner for life. One...Two.. Three!”

At the count of three, Remi tossed the note card into the air, all while Meis and Gueira turned around to face each other.

“Oh, wow,” Gueira breathes. “I love you so much, you know that, right?”

“Don’t. Say that,” Meis says. “You are not allowed to say that. I spent too much time on my eye make-up.”

“It looks great! You look great,” Gueira reaches over to rub the sides of Meis’s shoulders. “The velvet fringe _really_ suits you.”

“Thanks,” Meis sniffs as he looks up and blinks, in an attempt to prevent tears from forming. “Your jersey looks fantastic with the blazer.”

“Oh this?” Gueria gestures to his studded blazer, the bedazzled gems complimenting the colors on his Miami Heat jersey that acted as his vest over his button up shirt that had a dark tropical pattern on it.

“Yes, that,” Meis pats Gueira’s chest endearingly. “This is so you. I love you.”

“Okay, now, _you’re_ not allowed to say that, either!”

Meis laughs as he pulls Gueira into a hug.

“Okay, now,” Remi claps. “Photo time before we bring more people into this session.”  
  
  
  
  


_“Remi Puguna, you_ **_will_ ** _put up with their shenanigans if it means going back on schedule!”_

Lio lets out a sigh after banging on the door to scold Remi.

“You good, firebug?”

“Absolutely not,” Lio chuckles. “...Hey, can you…?”

“Burrito time?”

Lio nods. “Burrito time.”

“C’mere,” Galo says, bringing Lio into his arms and giving his body a light squeeze. “Not really a burrito time without the comforter, huh?”

“No, but this works just as nice,” Lio says into Galo’s chest, his voice muffled from the layers of fabric. But Galo can hear him just fine. “...I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I… a lot of things, probably. I want to talk about it with you, but I don’t think I can do that right now.”

“That’s fair,” Galo nods. “And I’m sorry, too.”

Lio squeezes his arms around tighter around Galo’s waist, propping his chin on his boyfriend’s chest. “I love you so much.”

Galo smiles and presses a kiss on Lio’s nose. “I love you so much, too.”

Lio sighs contentedly, allowing himself a few more moments in Galo’s arms before he had to rush off to take care of other things. Whenever they hugged like this, Lio never wanted to let go, afraid that it would be the last time.

He never wanted to feel like that.

Not with Galo.

“Hey, um,” Galo spoke. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why is there a warning for flashing lights by the main hall?”

“Oh, Galo Thymos,” Lio chuckled. “You better strap on in because you are in for a treat.”

Even though they had to part, despite having a lot on their plate to talk about, Lio knew that they’d have time to work through it after today.

So he broke away from Galo and disappeared to go into the backyard, happily greeted by Meis and Gueira, pulling Lio in between them as Varys snapped pictures.

Galo smiled, looking at them.

If Meis wouldn’t let go of Gueira without a fight, he would do the same for Lio.

  
  
  
  
Considering all of the hiccups that morning and all of the ones in the months preceding the event, everything had gone pretty well.

Reese and Filos had arrived once the photos of Meis and Gueira with Lio were taken. Each of them took the opportunity to do solo and group photo ops with the small chihuahua before they invited Filos in as well as the rest of Burning Rescue for the session.

Lio left the photography session as soon as he wasn’t needed anymore to check up on the guests, many of them being former Mad Burnish members as well as the Burnish that they knew while on the run, and new faces as well. Lio took his time to check in on some of them, before he made the announcement, directing them into the ceremonial area, where Ignis stood at the podium to announce the grooms’ entourages in.

The procession was reformatted by Lio, in collaboration with Meis and Gueira. They all agreed that the traditional bridesmaid-groomsmen procession and the act of being “given away” wasn’t something they wanted, but they didn’t want one of them to be waiting at the altar while the other walked down the aisle alone.

Since there were four different entrances into the main hall of the rec center, Lio arranged it so that the guests would enter from the main door at the south doors while the north door was left unused. The east and west doors were in the center of the room, so the seating was divided into four sections, allowing the procession to walk from either side of the hall, meet in the center, then walk together toward the aisle, then to their seats.

As everyone was getting ready for the ceremony, Gueira pulled Galo to the side.

“Is something up?” Galo asks.

“Just wanted to say thanks, for talking sense into me earlier,” Gueira says. 

“No pro--”

“Also that boss wouldn’t just leave you. Not that he’d say anything about it.”

Galo cracks a smile. “Thanks, Gueira.”

Gueira offers him his fist. Galo bumps it. “Bro. We’re _bros.”_

“Bro...”

“Bro…..”

“As sweet as this is, let’s not keep Gueira from marrying his ultimate bro, okay?” Aina says before she walked out into the main hall of the rec center. “You two can bro down later.”

Galo nods. “She’s right. You ready?”

“Despite the hiccups this morning, buddy, I’ve _been_ ready.”

Galo gives Gueira a nod before he walks out and upon opening the door, he’s greeted with an octet of strings, playing a tune he’s pretty sure he’s heard of before, but not entirely certain what it is. He has a feeling that it’s a song that is both fitting to the couple, but would also throw him in a loop once he finds out what it is.

He figured he’d ask, but he also knew that the answer wasn’t something he’d be ready for. And honestly, that was fine by him.

As Vinny scurried toward him, Galo bent down and lowered his hand, allowing his little rodent to skitter onto his shoulder. Once he made his way to his seat beside Lucia’s, Vinny hopped off from his shoulder onto her head.

Once everyone was in place, it was time for Gueira and Meis to make their own entrances.

“And now, introducing the grooms-- get ready to see them married!” Lio announced, and at that point, the music shifted as the lights shut down, allowing the laser light show to flash before tilting up, not too much differently from how Galo made his entrance into the scene the day Mad Burnish infiltrated the former Foresight Pharmaceuticals building. Only now, they were able to install a fog machine by the doors.

Meis had stepped out of the fog, arms wide open, showcasing the fringe on his sleeves, the beams of light showcasing the slight shift in color in his dark-velvet suit and allowing the gems bedazzled on it to sparkle. As he walked, the fringe that cascaded down his pinched-front hat danced around, obscuring his face, making it feel like a tease when he tipped it slightly towards the other side of the room where Gueira was making his own entrance.

Gueira had opened the double doors with a flourish, stepping directly where the fog machine and lights hit, his body silhouetted by the two as the door closed behind him. Once it did, it gave him his cue to step out and _roll_ down the aisle with the heels of his shoe. The ends of his blazer fluttered as he spun around and made his own pose.

When the two reached the middle, they extended their hands towards the other and took them, walking to Lio together.

And then, last, but certainly not least, came Reese, who was dressed in a suit and had the rings strapped on his collar, down the center of the aisle, with Filos trailing behind him.

Once he reached the base of the altar, Lio stepped down to take the box, and gave him a treat and a nice pat on the head. Since it was their wedding, Meis and Gueira went out of their way to bend down and give the legendary chihuahua their own set of pets and belly rubs. Once satisfied, they returned to their positions, allowing Reese to retreat to Filos, who led him to their seats.

“Good afternoon everyone and please take a seat. We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Meis--” From outside of the hall, they could hear the loud sound of the vacuum blare out, obscuring parts of Lio’s opening line. “And Gueira--”

He sighed, allowing the vacuum to continue before continuing.

“A lot has changed in past three years, but a lot has also stayed the same. I have known Meis and Gueira for a few years, and they have been married longer than that. Their marriage led Mad Burnish until they passed the power to me, and has seen the end and beginning of a new era. It is a love that changes and only grows more as time passes. A love worth protecting and fighting for,” Lio pauses and looks at each of his best friends. “Now, I understand that you’ve prepared your vows?”

“I’ll go first,” Meis says as he pulls out a folded piece of paper from the inside of his blazer.

“Gueira. When I first met you, I never thought that I would be married to you. We were thirteen and you were inventing Fried Chicken with the other kids and I thought, “Oof, I do not feel sorry for the person who has to babysit that dweeb.” But now here we are, getting married for the second time and for all of the time I spent with you, it has never felt like a chore because there has never been a dull moment with you,” Meis clears his throat. “You are the light of my life and nothing else could ever hold a candle to your flame. I love you and even though we can’t do the thing we were planning for the reception, we have the rest of our lives to do that.”

Meis gives Galo an appreciative smile before he nods at Lio and Gueira, indicating that he’s done with his vows.

“Well, funny that you say that, because when I first met you, Meis, I thought, “Man, I would not wanna get tethered by a stick in the mud like that,” but you’ve been my rock, helping me come to my senses if I ever got ahead of myself. As fun as it is to jump on my impulses, you make me think about it a little bit more. Like, yeah, I _can_ drink my fourth can of Monster, but I also wanna be able to hang out with you when I get home from work,” Gueira chuckles.. “You may hog the brain cells in this relationship, but baby, you still share it with me. And I couldn’t think of a better person to share it with.”

“Now, instead of exchanging rings, Meis and Gueira have planned to get a new set of matching tattoos, but we can’t really do that here. However, they will carry out the Burnish tradition of lighting a fire together using their own flames. Here are your ceremonial lighters,” Lio says as he hands them the items and positions the pyre in front of them. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Both of them strike the lighter immediately and light it up.

As the fire of the pyre flickered between them, Meis and Gueira looked at each other, eyes glassy and full of love for each other.

“By the power vested in me by the Neo-Promepolis Government, I pronounce you two married, _for reals-reals_ ,” Lio says the last words endearingly, smiling and shaking his head. “You may now kiss each other.”

Gueira bit his lip through his smile, parting the fringe from Meis’s hat to be able to cup his face in his hands and kiss him. Meis smiled through it, taking his hat off and placing it on Gueira’s head. When they were done, they took each other by the hand and started to walk down the aisle as the string octet sent them off.

“Now, if we all make our way down to the park, we will have our dinner and then, the reception.”

  
  
  
  


“Where. The _hell_. Are. They.”

Everyone who was at the ceremony was now seated at the tables in the park. It was surprisingly good weather for an outdoor reception, which Lio was grateful for, even though Meis and Gueira specifically chose an outdoor reception to roll their dice with the condition of the weather. Catering had arrived on time, the food ready to go, and the band cycling through their list of songs they covered from pre-Blaze bands.

It was all working out except the grooms are missing.

“The park is _literally_ across the street from the rec center, _how_ could they end up missing?”

Remi and Aina give each other a look.

“I’m gonna say it.”

Aina grabs Remi by his shoulder. “Do not.”

“They’re probably bon--”

“Heeeey!! We’re here!!!” Gueira announces as runs toward the group with Meis in tow.

“Where were you?” Lio asks, but sees that they swapped outfits. “Nevermind. Don’t answer that. Remi, Aina, you two are next. Get in there.”

“What happened was that they had sex--”

 _“OKAY--”_ Aina pulls Remi into a headlock and dragged him inside, where Lucia had volunteered to announce everyone in.

Meis eyes Lio. “...You’re not gonna say anything, boss?”

“Why would I? Now get in there so we can eat!”

  
  
  
  


Dinner went by smoothly, and if anyone noticed how Meis and Gueira swapped outfits, they didn’t make a comment on it. Instead, they dug into their choice of entree-- either chicken and pesto pasta, or shrimp scampi, and ate in peace as the two grooms fed each other their dinner like middle schoolers.

When dinner came to an end, each person in their entourage offered them a speech, to varying degrees of humor and sappiness. Former members of Mad Burnish came forward as well, to give their own toasts to the couple, remarking that even though they had a higher production value for this wedding, it was still whole-heartedly them.

Meis and Gueira could only give each other a look, knowing _full well_ that the reception was going to be an absolute banger.

So when the dishes were put away and the tables were cleared, it was time for the crew to bring in the pyro.

“To kick off the night’s events, Meis and Gueira will perform their first dance,” Lio smiled. “But, before they do, Meis will perform a song for his husband.”

Gueira looked at Meis for an answer, but he only gave him a smirk as Lio handed him a guitar and Galo placed two stools behind them.

“Now, this is usually supposed to be played at the end of the ceremony, but I wanted to play this myself,” Meis says as he tunes each string of the guitar. He plucks each string, checking for its tone and once satisfied, he strums a chord. “Babe, this is for you.”

Gueira stares at Meis in confusion until he starts to sing the lyrics of the song.

 _“Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling. Do you feel my heart beating, do you understand?_ _”_ Meis’s low voice filled the air as he sang into the microphone. The sun had already set, so they only had the dim lighting of the candles on the tables that were pushed to the side and the lanterns hanging above them present. _“Am I only dreaming? Or is this burning an eternal flame?”_

When Meis reached the chorus of the song, the band had joined him with the steady beat of the drums, before joining him fully to express the emotional intensity of the song, but careful to allow Meis shine through with his acoustic guitar. It had brightened up slightly, as the guests were holding up a small flame, swaying it from side to side.

Not that Gueira had noticed. He was too focused on Meis’s slight drawl as his long, thin fingers worked their magic on the guitar.

As the song drew to a close, the band had faded out, the strings the last to go when Meis sang the last verse.

_“Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling.”_

Strumming the last chord, Meis reached out his hand and Gueira took it without a hesitation, kissing it before pulling Meis in to kiss his lips.

The lights go out to prepare for the couple’s first dance, allowing Varys and Remi to carry the stools and mic off while Meis and Gueira swap their jackets back to each other. “You just made this more easy to do.”

A red light appears behind Gueira with the fog machine adding some mystique to his silhouette.

_“The greatest magicians have something to learn, from Mister Mistoffelees’ conjuring turn. And we all say--”_

A spotlight opens up on Gueira before he starts to make his way around the stage, singing the song, hyping Meis up until it’s his cue to enter. And when he does, Gueira points to a corner of the dance floor, where Meis comes rolling in on a pair of skates, the fringe of his jacket fluttering behind him, and the lights sewn in now fully lit up as he makes figures around Gueira.

Gueira continues to sing praises about Meis, having reformatted the song to fit him, all while Meis performs the magic tricks he’d been practicing to their guests. When it comes to the interlude, Meis makes his way back to Gueira, where they dance a tango-esque choreography, ending with Meis performing a split right.

 _“Magical!”_ Gueira exclaims before helping Meis up. Once Meis was up and about, Gueira ripped his sleeves off with a flourish.

For the finale, they help the pyro crew prepare the ones that were going to go off on stage. Every magic trick Meis performed from this point were timed with the stage pyro, bringing the guests a mix of awe and concern every time one went off and _especially_ when one went off that was too close for comfort.

 _“And they all say,”_ Gueira sang, giving Meis his cue to return to him. Meis skated over, with Gueira holding onto him, giving him all the tenderness he could put in the song before they let the band take over so they could focus on their dance.

The band’s singer, Foni closes off the song for them as Gueira spun Meis around and dipped him, timed exceptionally well when the fireworks were set off above them. The two kissed as their guests gave them all a deserving applause.

And they’d give them more time to soak it in, but a Meis and Gueira party meant that the ball wouldn’t stop rolling.

Foni picked up a tambourine, starting off the next song, and coughed into the mic, as it was a part of the song, but also to make sure Meis and Gueira were ready to officially start their reception. The bassist followed a suit, with the drummer trailing behind, and their guitarist after.

As the band prepared themselves, Meis and Gueira ran to grab their friends and pull them onto the floor so that when the song started, everyone was piling onto the dance floor.

_“A-go!”_

Despite it not being a part of their choreography, Gueira sang along with Foni passionately directing it at Meis. Their guests clapped, parting to form a line so that Gueira could run down the dance floor and slide on his knees to Meis, pulling him into an impromptu dance, only wincing a little bit as he continued to dance.

The tambourine played out, with it transitioning almost seamlessly to the next song.

Despite the song being pretty well known among all of the guests, the Burnish sang it with more intensity, having the lyrics down to a science with the dance, and were the only ones to whistle the tune perfectly when Foni sang it into the mic.

The drummer hits the bass drum and plays a beat to switch to the next song, the guitarist bringing them into it. The guests on the floor sing along as a circle forms, Aina, Lucia, and Meis taking over the floor until they drag Varys, Galo, and Gueira to the floor with them. They switch partners and drag more people in as the song continues.

Galo eventually finds Lio, and pulls him toward him. Lio smirks up at Galo and they spin around and dance the choreography they’ve gotten a noise complaint from their downstairs neighbors over when they played the dance video game Galo brought out of storage onto the floor.

When the horns close out the song, the keyboardist plays a complicated-sounding melody, allowing Foni to drink some water before he continued singing.

  
  


By the tenth song, Lio had danced all of the energy out of him and had tapped out to get a drink at the bar before retreating to the bridge a few feet away from the party.

“Wow, you guys really like The Bangles, huh?”

Lio was too engrossed in his drink and the calming reflection of the moonlight in the water, so when Galo approached him, he almost dropped his drink in the water.

“Whoa, usually you could tell when I’m coming!”

“Oh, well,” Lio sighs. “I guess I’m getting soft. And also, yes, we love the Bangles.”

“Nothin’ wrong with either of that.”

“Mm,” Lio nods, taking a sip of his drink.

“No Nine Loko?”

“Not if I don’t want to wake up with a headache tomorrow, no,” Lio sighs. “It _is_ tempting, though.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Galo agrees. “Gueira had me try it out at his bachelor party. It is… interesting, to say the least.”

“I’m sure.”

In the background, the band changes the song.

“Listen--” They both stop when they realize they said the same thing.

“You go first,” Galo offers.

Lio shakes his head. “No, you.”

“No, _you.”_

“Honestly...” Lio shakes his head with a smile. “Alright.”

Lio takes out the pack of cigarettes in his pocket. 

“I _was_ just going to throw this into the lake, but that’s bad, obviously, so I’m just gonna,” Lio walks over to the trash can, dumps it in, and pats his hands. “...That wasn’t as fun as chucking it out, but, it’s fine.”

Galo blinks at him. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“No, but I wanted to,” Lio says and takes Galo’s hand into his. “I love you, Galo. I want to live a long life with you. And after that night, it made me realize that I don’t do enough for you to know that.”

“Lio...”

“I’m all in, if you are,” Lio looks up at Galo and nods.

“I am.”

Lio smiles and reaches up to kiss Galo and pulls him into a hug.

Quickly realizing what just happened, the two pulled away.

“Okay, just to be clear, that wasn’t a--” Lio says.

“No, no, because proposing at Meis and Gueira’s reception is kinda…?”

“Exactly! And obviously when I propose, it’s going to be better than that.”

“When _you_ propose?”

“I asked first.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been _wanting_ to propose for like, _months_ now, _I_ should do it.”

Lio blinks. “Months?” 

“Yeah, I accidentally texted you about it when you first asked about pyro.”

“Galo Thymos,” Lio whispers. “You never cease to amaze me.”

“Haha, well...” Galo blushes. “Let’s see which one of us proposes first, then. Like, for reals-reals. And when we have our wedding, you are not planning it.”

Lio’s face falls. “What? You don’t think that I did a good job with this one?”

“No, you did amazing! This party slaps!” Galo says, gesturing to the reception area, where Reese was now somehow on a skateboard doing an Ollie. “ _Holy shit._ ”

“That’s Reese for you.”

“But anyway, I want you to enjoy yourself,” Galo continues. “Okay?”

Lio nods. “Okay.”

  
  
  
  


The reception lasted until morning, and Galo had rounded everyone to help with clean up.

They ended up attracting more people in as the night progressed, with strangers and a passing circus joining them at different points in the night. The circus had a fire breather on board, which only amped up the energy more, being a fan favorite for the evening, and being a good sport when she helped sweep up the cups that had been tossed onto the floor.

After clean up, Meis and Gueira had returned to their apartment to gather their things together for a trip out into the desert with each other. Galo and Lio were the only ones put together enough to see them off.

“We’ll see you back in a week, right?” Lio asks as he loads the cooler in the trunk of the car.

“Yuuuup,” Gueira nods. “Gonna drive all the way out to the beach. Haven’t seen it in so long and we’ve been meaning to find an excuse to go.”

Lio made a note to find some time to go with Galo.

“We’ll call you if anything happens,” Meis says. “Lucia did something so we’d have good reception out in the desert.”

“Good.”

Meis and Gueira look at each other before pulling Lio into a hug.

“Thanks for everything, boss,” Meis says.

“Yeah, we’re really glad we got to get married again, but have you involved in it,” Gueira agrees.

“I’m… I’m very honored that you allowed me to plan it.”

They pull away and nod to each other before jumping in the car.

Meis taps the side of the car. “Hey, Galo.”

Galo’s head perks up. “Yeah?”

“Take care of boss, okay?”

Gueira leans over from the passenger seat to look at Galo. “Yeah! Don’t make us do a taksies-backsies!”

“Aw, I wouldn’t dream of it!” Galo grins as he drapes an arm across Lio’s shoulders.

“Good,” Meis puts his shades on. “See you two around. Don’t do anything interesting without us!”

Galo and Lio watch them drive off until the car disappeared.

“C’mon,” Galo yawns. “We should catch up on some sleep.”

“Okay,” Lio agrees, leaning his head against Galo’s chest as they made their way back to their home.

Neither of them wanted to start their proposal plans without Meis and Gueira, anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> context:  
> \- I heard about Nine Lokos Once and it has stuck with me, so I obviously had to write about it.  
> \- Lio's Inferno Hot Sauce makes a return.  
> \- Reese the Dog has the same energy as Lil' Sebastian from Parks and Rec and Jenna Marbles's dog, Marbles.  
> \- Oh, to be in a point in my life where Promare and Cats the Musical are President and Vice President of my brain cells.  
> \- Gueira's tear-away sleeves are a reference to S1E10 of the Good Place.  
> \- They were playing No Nut November by SuperMega at Gueira's suit fitting.  
> \- Meis's hat is inspired by Billy Porter's hat from the 2020 Grammys. Actually, his whole wedding outfit vibe in general is inspired by Orville Peck.  
> \- Lio & Remi's argument is from S3E23 of Brooklyn Nine Nine.  
> \- Can you believe that Lio's name inspiration is Deucalion? I can! Enough to slap it in here LOL  
> \- I've cried and been worried at stuff like Galo did when he was talking to Lucia, Gueira, and Ignis lmao  
> \- The songs played during Meis and Gueira's wedding are:  
> \--> Ram Ranch, (String Octet Version)  
> \--> Whatever version of the wedding march they used in S1E10 of the Good Place  
> \--> Eternal Flame, The Bangles  
> \--> Mr. Mistoffelees, CATS (1998)  
> \--> Are You Gonna Be My Girl, Jet  
> \--> Walk Like an Egyptian, The Bangles  
> \--> Voulez-Vous, ABBA  
> \--> Holding Out For A Hero, the one used in Shrek 2, specifically  
> \- Is it possible to do a choreographed sequence in a fanfic? IDK, but it's not gonna stop me from doing it again LMAO
> 
> I'm @https_aj on both [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/https_aj/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/https_aj). (Expect a whole lot of Promare stuff on Twitter, especially.)  
> 


End file.
